


All Beyond the Sidelines

by EDowser



Category: Harry - Fandom, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Complete, Gen, Major Original Character(s), Mystery, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-09-06 02:45:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 42,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8731810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EDowser/pseuds/EDowser
Summary: Eco's whole life changes as he's forced to move from London when his dad gets a job in the Brazilian school of wizardry. After years dreaming of Hogwarts, Eco is faced with a decadent school in a foreign environment that only gets worse as an auror shows up dead before classes begin. With his new friend Gabe and the mysterious delinquent Barb, Eco has to cope with his new life.





	1. A New Home

Chapter I – A New Home

"Come on, Eco! You should be excited. Feel the heat."

Eco looked up at the airport window. Even though it seemed insulated against UV rays, the sunlight outside was so strong he could feel the heat from outside. He could also see a few trees in a surprising amount of shades of green glimmering with the light. Not as many trees as he had imagined, though. When his father said they'd be moving to Brazil, Eco had expected a forest. Instead, the few trees he saw through the window were overshadowed by the myriad of concrete buildings that spread around the airport.

"It's just like London," Eco said, more to himself than to his father.

"It looks similar," his dad conceded. "But can't you feel the heat?"

Eco could, and he hated it. There was supposed to be snow in January. Snow in which he could play with Beth and Rob. They had spent the past three days trying to build their biggest snowman yet, but by the time Eco left, they hadn't yet managed to beat last year's. And now Eco would never see his friends again, and wouldn't be able to build any snowpeople at all.

"Hey!" It was only when his dad knelt beside him that Eco realized there were tears in his eyes. He tried to wipe them away, but it was already too late. His father hugged him, and the contact turned Eco's silent tears into sobs. "Hey…" He said again, but even his dad didn't seem sure of how to proceed. "It's going to be okay."

"I miss everyone," Eco confessed. He hadn't planned to. He had been trying to be strong.

"I know you do. I miss them too… But Eco, we'll meet new people. New friends. The people here are probably nice. You'll see. Look how bright it is here." His father took Eco by the shoulders and turned him to the windows. "Look at the light. Feel the heat. We're going to be happy here."

As far as happiness went, Eco was dissatisfied with their beginning. Outside the airport, the heat turned out to be even higher than inside, almost unbearable. His dad managed to get their luggage and procure a cab using his awful Spanish. Still, even the people looked different than Eco's father's enthusiastic picture had painted them. They smiled too much, and they seemed disinclined to do anything, least of all work.

Still, through persistence and an entire saga of gestures, Eco's father managed to lead the driver to the right place. Eco wasn't paying attention, though, as he took his cellphone out from his pocket. He wanted to check whether there were any new messages from his friends or his mom, but there was no internet connection. His father had told him they'd need to hire a new provider service once in Brazil, but Eco hoped his slow and painful attempts to connect to the airport's wi-fi would have yielded results. He had to make do with offline games for the time being, then.

"Hey, Eco! Look up!" Eco did, but not before sighing with all the air that he could fit in his lungs. His dad's enthusiasm didn't diminish, though. "This is our new home."

Echo looked up to find a modest sized apartment building. It had four floors of visible windows, without any garage entry that Eco could find. The cheery yellow paint had been covered in red and black graffiti with a meaning too obscure for Eco to grasp. That would be for the best, probably. The windows were big, which would come in handy in that heat, and there were some plants poking out of some of them, giving the whole building a grandmotherly look. It didn't seem so bad, however the sides of the building were contiguous with their neighbors, a black and shady tattoo joint and a wide nameless bar.

"Well?" his father prodded.

Eco thought of saying he didn't like it, and immediately regretted it. This new home business wasn't easy on dad either. He would be apart from mom for a long time, and even though Eco also loved mom and didn't want to separate from her, dad would miss her the most. The least Eco could do was not to make things even harder.

"Neat!" he said, before remembering to smile a compatible expression. It's like a dollhouse!"

A dollhouse? Why did Eco say that? Luckily, his father only smiled an expression so full of relieve that Eco was glad he had made the effort.

It was obviously a Muggle neighborhood. Eco didn't really mind it, since they used to live around Muggles in London as well. Most of Eco's friends were Muggles, as he had been attending Muggle education before he had the right age for Hogwarts. Though he had already confided of his magic to Beth and Rob, it had surprisingly little effect on their friendship. His mother did work with magical research, but this job in Brazil would be the first Eco's father had in the magical world for over three years. Eco could only hope that at least for his father this whole thing would turn out to be a positive experience, then.

Adapting was hard. Eco and his dad had started studying Portuguese before leaving home – or rather, Eco would have to get used to calling it his old home. There was still an entire month of summer vacation before classes started, though, so they had time to polish the edges. As it was, Eco felt like he was doing much better than his dad.

"Hey, Eco!" his father called one day. "I spoke to the headmistress earlier, and she confirmed you've been admitted to school.

For the first time since they arrived Eco permitted himself to feel a glimmer of excitement. It bubbled and burst into an explosion of joy as he looked away from his laptop. "My admission letter arrived?"

"Oh. Oh, no. They don't have admission letters here. It was just a phone call."

No letter of admission? Eco reclined back on his chair, the breath he had been holding not quite managing to escape. No letter of admission. For the past few months, all Eco and his friends had discussed were the letters of admission. They'd be receiving them later that year, but Beth's brother had let her scan his to show Eco what to expect. But Eco would have no letter of admission. It was a silly detail, really. A silly detail that shouldn't matter.

But it did.

Perhaps Eco was still shaken from their move. Perhaps he just wanted to share as much as he could with his old friends. Either way. The lack of a letter was the threshold that tipped Eco's weariness of the new environment into actual animosity. Whatever happened when classes started next month, Castelobruxo would never be his home.


	2. The Magical World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eco and his dad go buy school materials at the local magical shop, including Eco's first wand.

Chapter II – The Magical World

“Time seems to be sneaking up on us!” his dad said while preparing their breakfast. “Classes start next week and we still haven’t bought any of your material!”  
Eco had noticed, but his eagerness to look for school materials was as great now as his eagerness to attend, or as his willingness to swallow a cup of blended fat.  
“It’s been some time since we got internet access,” Eco said while examining the milk carton next to him, ignoring the subject of school materials.  
“Yeah?”  
“I haven’t gotten a message from mom yet.”  
“No?” His dad poured coffee into both cups, but didn’t turn to Eco as he offered him one. “It’s not something to worry about. She’s probably just caught up in another project, or is traveling somewhere with even worse reception than here.”  
“Probably…” Eco agreed. “I thought maybe she had sent you something.”  
“No, not yet. But don’t worry. Here, eat well. It’s going to be a full day.”  
Eco took the piece of bread his dad was offering, and tried not to think of what was to come.

“It must be around here somewhere.”  
Eco looked up at his father while he watched the name of the streets passing by. Muggle buses were dirty and crowded as a rule, but they had managed to choose an hour when they could even get seats.  
“Isn’t there a Knight bus we could call?” Eco asked.  
“The Brazilian ministry has promised to make one available by the end of their term. Or perhaps that was the previous administrations? Either way, there is something like it, but it’s too expensive for us.”  
“Why not floo powder, then?”  
“There are very few fireplaces around here, and their use costs hundreds of galleons per person. But don’t worry, we’re… Oh, shoot! That was our stop!”  
Eco’s father hammered the stop button nearest to them, but considering the lack of response, it might have been broken. He stumbled to his feet then, and almost fell as he tried to reach the next button.  
“Driver! Stop!” Eco’s dad shouted in his heavily accented tone.  
“Sorry, pal,” the conductor called from behind the magazine he was reading. “We cannot let people off outside bus stops.”  
“Oh, bother!” dad cursed while trying to keep his balance.  
Eco didn't get up during this exchange, and waited for minutes as the bus traversed bridges and roads and several curves before the next bus stop. Only then did Eco followed his father bumbling down the large steps down to the street.  
Retracing the way the bus back to the last bus stop was even harder than finding the right bus to board in the first place. The bridges had no sidewalks for people to walk through, and some of the roads had metal fences to keep pedestrians from crossing. Neither his father nor Eco quite remembered the way back, so almost a full hour of trial and error went by under the scorching sun walking the burning asphalt before they managed to reach the place they thought they should have disembarked.  
“Now… It was somewhere through here…” his dad said.  
“Are you sure you can’t do any magic to find the right place?”  
“No, I can’t.” Eco’s father passed his hands through his hair, and Eco could hear the attempt to keep his frustration from his voice. “Can't you use your gadgets to find it?”  
“You haven't gotten mobile internet for me yet,” Eco pointed out. “Our wi-fi only works at our house.”  
“Oh,” dad said, sweating profusely. “I had forgotten you needed that. Muggles can be so peculiar.”  
As peculiar as charging hundreds of galleons per person when using floo powder? Eco thought best not to comment.  
In truth, despite all his misgivings, Eco was both abbreviating and dreading his first contact with the local wizard community. He watched the vandalized buildings as he walked along with his father, taking note of all people who looked out of place enough that they might be part of their wizardry community. There were loads of individuals fitting the peculiar bill, to the point that Eco wondered if he should assume they were all wizards, or if maybe the haggard appearances and dirty clothes belied a different reality than the magic one.  
“Do you know how their Diagonal Alley is like?” Eco asked. “What is it called?”  
His father hesitated, looking at a particularly out of place old man who was muttering at nothing. His father took Eco’s hand and dragged him away from the murmuring man. “I haven't seen it yet… But if I remember it right it's called… The Diagonal Boulevard?”  
There was a long minute of silence.  
“Really?”  
“I’m pretty sure, yes.”  
The Diagonal Boulevard…Eco wasn't sure what to make of it. Should he assume that it was just like back home, but wider? Or should he rather assume that they were trying to sound grand in spite of reality?  
“I think it's here…” Dad said.  
Eco followed his father’s gaze to a point in the nearby crumbling wall. It too was covered in graffiti, but one particular drawing seemed to have been painted with particular care. Eco couldn't quite tell what was represented at first, but as he kept staring at the colorful lines, they seemed to merge in what he supposed to be a cauldron.  
“Is that supposed to be a black hole?” Dad asked, peering at the graffiti.  
“I think it's a cauldron,” Eco said, though now that the question has been asked, he was no longer sure. “How do we open it? “  
“Well…” His father pulled a letter from his shirt pocket and muttered as he went over it. “I guess…” He stepped closer to the wall. “Since the headmaster told me of the location, I expect it will show up at any moment now… Oh.”  
Just as his father stepped beside the wall, it started to change. The opening of the cauldron (or black hole) enlarged in straight and ungraceful lines to the shape of a small door, which then completely failed to enlarge any further.  
“Is this it?” Eco asked, unimpressed.  
“It seems that way…” Eco’s dad pushed the door forward. It creaked and groaned, but it did swing inward. Eco’s father hunched his back and almost squatted as he squeezed himself through the door. “It's a stairway.” He sounded mildly surprised. “The light here isn't very good. Watch your step, Eco!”  
As Eco followed his father through the passageway, he had to agree about the light. There were only two glowing torches on each side of the walls even though the stairway seemed to stretch downward a long way. It was hard to judge with his father blocking most of the path, crouching to avoid the ceiling and casting huge shadows back on Eco.  
They descended slowly, and Eco actually found himself surprised that the air didn't smell stale. Here half expected the lights to be actual fire rather than magic and the confined space to be filled with carbon monoxide, but for everything unmagical Eco had found so far, at least in this the local wizards had no fault.  
“Here!” his dad called excitedly.  
He must have reached the other door, as there soon was more soulless creaking before they could walk again. His father crossed and several of his joints cracked when he stood straight again. Eco followed to have his first glimpse of the Diagonal Boulevard.  
At first, he assumed they had ended up in a shop like the leaky cauldron. There were several different wares distributed in shelves close to the door they had just gone through. There were books, notebooks, pens, but before Eco could see much more, his eyes were drawn to a big sign on the opposite walk. It was written in Portuguese, as expected, and said:  
The Diagonal Boulevard  
The best place for all your magical needs.  
Exit floor: paper articles, portion ingredients and miscellaneous items.  
-1st floor: Pets and sports articles.  
-2nd floor: Wands and entertainment.  
-3rd floor: Food, drink and banking.  
The Diagonal Boulevard was a department store?  
Eco looked around. He assumed books and writing utensils qualified as paper articles, but he had expected more variety. There were no more than four bookshelves, another shelf with scales, miniature cauldrons and potion ingredients, then one more with what seemed to be gossip magazines and newspapers, a shelf which the writing utensils shared with what seemed to be home décor, and all other seven shelves were dedicated for the mysterious miscellaneous items.  
For a long moment, both Eco and his father just stood in silence.  
“Good morning, sir!” A shop clerk approached Eco’s father in quick steps. “Can I interest you in fake Phoenix quill sets? They're 15% off, just today! “  
“Wha—” In his unfamiliarity with the language, Eco assumed that the clerk has spoken to fast for his father to process the words. The woman didn't allow the silence to longer, though, and her smile didn't falter as she continued.  
“How about a Potter sticker album for your smart boy? We only have five left in stock!”  
The clerk smiled at Eco, making him instantly recoil.  
“Wa… wands,” Eco's dad managed to say.  
“Oh. Those are at a different for. But I'm sure there are also things here to interest you, hm, sir?”  
“Th-thank you, but no.” The language was evidently making his father flustered. His cheeks grew rosier and puffier. Eco didn't like to see them like that.  
Eco's father finally managed to disengage the clerk, walking a circle around the room before finding stairs going up. There were no elevators, apparently.  
“Listen, Eco,” his father seemed to have recomposed himself, which was good. “I'll leave you choosing your wand while go to the bank. It should be quick.”  
It should. That didn't stop anxiety from creeping into Eco's stomach in that unfamiliar, undesired place.  
“A wizard doesn't choose his wand,” Eco declared. “The wand chooses…”  
“I know, Eco, I know. And you know what I meant. Don't worry, if anything happens, just scream for me.”  
That would be the one use of such a small store, then.  
Eco's father did look around the wand floor with him. This one had piles and piles of small boxes lying around, but no shelves. The only person inside was the shop clerk, who was considerably less enthusiastic than his companion from the exit floor, asleep at a desk surrounded in stacks of wands.  
“Excuse me,” Eco's father called. “My son is in need of a wand.”  
The clerk jerked awake with an exclamation that might have been a welcome. Eco and his father exchanged a look.  
“Call me if you need anything…” His dad murmured to Eco.  
Eco didn’t doubt that he would need help, yet he said nothing. His father continued upstairs just as the clerk approached, rubbing his hands together.  
“So…” he said, smiling. “You are in need of a wand, boy? Is it your first one?”  
“Yes…” Eco didn’t like the look of the sales clerk. He had always pictured wand shops as mysterious, ethereal places. However, the smiling man in front of Eco looked too much like a business person. It was unlikely that he was the wand manufacturer.  
“Very well! You've made a fine choice, coming to us. We only use national ingredients, mind you, so our wands have a very strong sense of national pride.”  
Eco's stomach sunk. As out of place as he felt, national ingredients definitely wouldn’t be what he needed.  
“National ingredients? You mean like Brazilian unicorns, and phoenixes and dragons…”  
“Oh, goodness, no!” the clerk interrupted. “We don't limit ourselves to a few ingredients like some other manufacturers I could mention. Besides, there are no Brazilian unicorns or phoenixes. And just the one dragon, that might actually just be an Animagus. Still, she did gift us a couple of teeth over the ages, but there’s only one left here in stock…Anyway, we have a big variety of other materials such as fire snake skin, lion monkey mane, pink dolphin’s heart… Not to mention our wood variety.”  
Eco felt sick. Why hadn't they bought a proper Olivander's before leaving London?  
“Are you looking for a cheap wand or an expensive one?” the clerk asked, without batting an eye.  
“Excuse me?”  
“The price range, chap. You look as if you can afford a suitable wand.”  
“But…” Eco felt light headed. “The wand chooses…”  
“Oh. I see. In that case, we better start experimenting. Let me just take some measurements…”  
The clerk did so, but by this point, Eco was already sure nothing would be right. As the clerk excused himself to bring a few likely wands, Eco felt his legs trembling. He looked around for a chair, but instead found a boy about his age standing next to the stairs.  
For a long moment, they just started at each other.  
“Hi,” the boy greeted.  
“Hello,” Eco replied cautiously.  
“Are you the clerk? “  
“No, I’m a customer!”  
The other boy nodded, and Eco could see he was relieved. That smarted Eco a bit, and he wondered how relieved the other boy would be once he saw the actual clerk.  
“I’m sorry,” the other boy said, as if he could guess what Eco was thinking. “It's just that I’ve never bought a wand before, so I'm a bit nervous.”  
He did look nervous. He was fidgeting with his hands in front of his body, and his eyes darted all around the room. His black hair was very smooth, though, poking out of an orange woolen cap (despite the heat). His reddish skin made Eco assume the boy was of native descent, and he was probably proud of it, since a bundle of colorful feathers dangled from one of the boys ears. There were tribal patterns in his clothing as well, but they were otherwise unremarkable.  
“It's my first wand too,” Eco said, stepping closer to the other boy. “I'm Eco, by the way.”  
“Hello there, Eco,” he greeted again. “I’m Gabriel. Gabe, really. Are you from somewhere else? You sound a bit funny.”  
Eco wasn't a big fan of the statement, considering that Gabe’s voice wasn't quite right either. It sounded squeaky, as if he were trying and failing to reach a falsetto. Then again, Eco wasn’t from Brazil, and it was silly to think he'd have been able to speak like a native so soon after arriving.  
“Yes. We're from London. My father and I, I mean. You seem like a local kid, though. Are you Muggle-born?”  
Gabe's face contracted as if Eco had just pointed a knife at him. “Is that a problem?” he asked in a defensive tone.  
“No, I was just…”  
“Well now aren't we busy today? Are you looking for a wand as well, friend?”  
The clerk deposited a stack of battered boxes by Eco before continuing towards Gabe. Eco looked down at the boxes, but since the clerk said nothing, he assumed he should just try them all.  
“Yes,” Gabe said. “My first one, actually.”  
“Are you looking for a cheap wand or an expensive one?”  
By then Eco had already unpacked the first wand out of a box. It was reddish and glossy, but acted like nothing more than a stick as Eco waved it around.  
“I'm not sure,” Gabe replied. “Perhaps a medium one?”  
Though Eco felt like he had offended Gabe with his question, he still felt like he could mend the situation.  
“You shouldn't choose a wand,” he said. “The wand chooses you!”  
The clerk’s smile looked positively hostile as he turned to Eco. “How is that working out for you?”  
Eco had tried three wands so far, and none had acted at all different from each other.  
“That one is Brazilwood with a core of trickster pipe.”  
Eco tried it, but it did nothing. He passed it over to Gabe, who got the same result.  
Together, they went through the entire stack the clerk had brought Eco, and then the next one. By then, Eco had been in the shop for a full twenty minutes, and started looking around to see if his father was coming down. The clerk had long ago lost his patience and was just bringing them the closest stacks he could find.  
“Perhaps our wands simply haven't been made yet,” Gabe suggested, glancing uncomfortably at the annoyed clerk.  
Eco doubted it. He was sure that at Olivander's both of them would have left satisfied ages ago.  
“Perhaps there's a different material we haven't tried?” Eco asked the clerk.  
“You have tried every core I have in stock except for the one with the dragon tooth!” the clerk replied quickly. Then he paused with a musing expression. “I guess…”  
The clerk left again, and Eco exchanged a look with Gabe.  
“I think I'll just buy a simple wand,” Gabe said as if trying to mollify Eco. “I'm not really picky.”  
“You can't!” Eco insisted. “It's dangerous to use a wand that hasn't chosen you! Spells backfire all the time, and they’re never very powerful.”  
Gabe shrugged, but Eco felt like he was just trying to be agreeable.  
“I'm sorry about before,” Eco said. “I'm from the U.K., so I didn’t know my question would offend.”  
“It's alright,” Gabe said mildly. “It's just that people don't usually discuss their heritage. You should avoid asking. “  
“Noted,” Eco said, relieved. “It seems kind of silly, though. There's nothing wrong with being Muggle-born. My father is mugglelogist.”  
Gabe seemed to be trying to decide if Eco was bragging or not. Before he had reached a consensus, though, the clerk returned with a battered looking box.  
“Here it is!”  
He offered the box to Eco. He opened the lid to find a rather cool looking red wand. He reached for it.  
Before he had the chance to touch it, though, the wand flew away from the box. Eco looked around, thinking he had dropped it, but found the wand standing in the air beside him as if suspended by a thread, right in front of a rather astonished Gabe.  
“Well, that never happened before…” the clerk said, his voice weak. “The wand usually attacks whomever tries to touch it.”  
“Try it!” Eco urged, though he felt a pang of jealousy that the coolest wand had jumped at the other boy.  
Gabe gingerly touched the magical artifact, and as his hands closed around it, all lights went out.  
“Okay, don't panic!” the clerk squeaked. “That's a good sign!”  
The lights came back a moment later, revealing a very pale, trembling Gabe.  
“It's a wand for the Dark Arts!” Gabe said, holding it away from his face.  
“Nonsense!” the clerk said. “It's the wand for you. What you'll do with it, though…”  
Eco was shaking as well, but he tried to hide it. “At least you managed to find a wand. I still have nothing.”  
Gabe tentatively smiled at Eco, but the clerk paid him no mind.  
“That’s the rarest wand we have in stock, sir,” he said smugly. “It'll be a thousand tapus. We can divide that in up to twelve payments—”  
“There's no need,” Gabe interrupted. “I was told I could transfer the money directly between accounts?”  
“You can, sir!” The clerk’s voice instantly became softer. “Indeed you can…”  
Eco stood forgotten while Gabe and the clerk went over his payment. He tried a few more wands nearby, but after Gabe's show, it felt kind of pointless. He guessed he had misjudged the other boy in more ways than one. Eco would never have thought Gabe could readily afford that sum of money.  
“So that's settled,” Gabe said. “Thank you…Eco was it?”  
“Yeah,” Eco smiled at him. “See you at Hogwarts, Gabe?”  
The other boy smiled. “See you at Saciscola,” he corrected. “Good luck with your wand.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading the second chapter of All Beyond the Sidelines!  
> I hope things didn’t feel too rushed, but I was eager to get to the actual school. In this chapter we met another one of the main characters: Gabriel. He’s the boy standing closest to the “camera” on the cover picture. I added more details to his description in the chapter because I wasn’t satisfied with that design, so I might update it later on when I have some spare time.  
> One of the challenges of revising the story will be giving Gabe some more screen time in later chapters.  
> As before, I’d be thankful for any criticism that you can offer, and I hope to be back next Saturday with the third chapter. I haven’t decided the stopping point for it yet, but it probably will give us our first glimpse of the Brazilian school of wizardry.  
> Also, since I don’t have Gabe’s appearance ready yet, for this week I uploaded my sketch of Eco’s dad on Deviantart: http://erikdowser.deviantart.com/art/Eco-s-Dad-649209079.  
> If you imagined him differently, let me know.  
> Thanks for reading!


	3. Going to School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eco and his dad try to work their way to school, meeting other characters along the way.

Eco's dad spent most of the next few days out of the house. He got Eco a mobile plan, which was useful to talk with his friends overseas, though his mom was still silent. Eco was starting to fear she had forgotten how to use Muggle gadgets, though in that case she'd probably have sent a letter already. It was already their last weekend before classes, though, when Eco's father came home with a narrow wand box.

“Surprise!”

Eco did his best to look pleased, though in truth he was distressed. So Eco's father’s solution had between to buy any wand, without even having Eco try it? As if he could read his thoughts, his father said, “Well, try it!”

Eco opened the box with cold, numb hands, then he picked up the wand. Immediately it started to glow.

Eco was so happy he felt like he'd cry again. He gasped, watching the wand’s glow, and couldn't quite take his eyes away from it to look up at his father.

“How…”

“I told you I'd figure it out. I had this wand made.”

Eco peered at the wood, dark and smooth. It felt smooth and flexible, but he could hardly tell what that meant, and what the components were.

“What is it made of?” he asked.

“Things…” his dad said mysteriously.

Eco finally looked up.

“What things?” His father only smiled. “Tell me!”

“Let's just be glad it worked and call it a day.”

But that only made Eco more curious. No matter how much he pleaded with his father, though, he wouldn't say what was the core. All in all, though, Eco did agree that it didn't matter much, as long as it had chosen him.

 

“Do you have everything?” Eco’s dad asked.

“Yes!” Eco replied in a huff. “We checked three times! How about you?”

“Everything’s here.” Eco's father grumbled, pulling his luggage beside him. “If you forget anything, we won't be able to get it back until Easter break.”

“I know, and I’ve told you: it is all here!”

“If you say so…”

Despite his many reassurances, now that the time has come, Eco's father seemed positively frightened of leaving the house. He stood by the door with all his luggage at hand, looking around as if he expected to see some forgotten item jumping out of the empty apartment to greet them. As they would have been staying for no more than a month, they hadn't really bought any more furniture than absolutely necessary, so the house looked no more bare empty than it had when they had been fully occupying it.

It was a few more minutes before Eco's father had gathered the will to leave. A cab was waiting for them at the street, and considering the driver’s sour expression, he hadn't appreciated waiting for Eco's father to make up his mind either. He offered no help as his two customers stuffed the trunk with their bags, and said nothing more than a grunt once they entered the vehicle. It was only when they were moving that Eco realized he had no idea where they were going.

“How will we get there?” he asked in a whisper, glancing at the driver.

“There are a few school buses departing from the intercity terminal at noon,” his dad replied unconcernedly. “I've been told one of them is exclusive to staff, but I can ask if they'll let you ride with me.”

Eco thought about it, but a bus ride with no company other than his future professors and his dad didn't seem very appealing.

“Thanks, but I want to meet the other kids.”

“Oh,” his dad paused thoughtfully for a moment. “That's a good idea. “

Despite his words, it was quite clear to Eco that his father had been expecting them to be together through the trip. Perhaps he hoped Eco would help him communicate better with his peers, despite all his practicing. Indeed, his father made an effort to strike a conversation with the cab driver. The replying grunts didn't make it clear whether Eco's father could be understood or not.

The intercity bus terminal was quite unimpressive. The street in which the cab driver stopped seemed almost like an alleyway. Eco and his father had to circle around the car to take their luggage back out of the trunk, then work their way up a foul smelling ramp to the concrete box that was the terminal.

The inside was actually a pleasant surprise. The ceiling was high, letting the air circulate. It was well lit, and full of busy looking people both well-dressed or simply fashioned. There seemed to be a lot of students as well, though Eco couldn't quite tell if they were wizards or not. There were several travel agent booths, and also restaurants. A few benches were scattered through the space as well as flashing monitors with departing and arrival times. It was almost like an airport, though slightly less fancy.

“It must be around there somewhere…” Eco’s dad said, indicating the booths with his head.

Eco's father guided them closer to the travel agencies. Eco looked around for obvious signs of wizards, bit the usual telltale weirdness was too widespread to be accurate. There were no owls he could see, though some of the bags were big enough that they could carry pretty much anything.

“Here! Dad exclaimed. “Platform seven?”

Eco looked around to where his father was pointing. It was a small banner which said:

_Saciscola:_

_An initiative of the federal government._

Eco started at it for a long time.

“Federal government,” he repeated in disbelief. “Are you sure this is it? The name isn’t even right.”

“It's a ruse,” his dad said. “I’m told Muggles here pay no attention to what their government is doing.

Eco was skeptic. Still, they had found the place.

“It’s still an hour before noon,” he said, checking his phone. “Do you think that platform is far?”

“There's only one way to find out…”

Eco and his father started asking around for platform seven, and eventually found that they would have to go down a set of stairs again. The platforms weren't nearly as neat as the terminal above, but Eco had grown so used to the degradation of the streets that it still seemed fairly well maintained. There were several platforms, and most of them has no one but uniformed terminal workers. In that regard, platform seven was easily visible as the only one filled with children carrying luggage. Eco's father was one of the only few adults there, and definitely the only parent.

Eco didn't want to be the only kid clinging to his parents, but he could barely think about that at the moment. There were only three buses on platform seven, and they all looked fairly ancient. Sometime in the past they had been painted in tones of red and brown which has mostly peeled away to be replaced by orange rust. On their sides, the buses had an emblem of the silliest looking smiling boy, with a red cap on his head and a pipe in his mouth. Around the boy, a white parchment was drawn with the words:

_Sapientia Gloriosa_

“What the…” Eco mouthed.

“Wallace? Doran Wallace?”

Eco’s dad turned at the mention of his name. “Yes?”

The new arrival who had called him was a young woman with rounded African features.  Her curly hair fell away from her face, revealing big loops of golden earrings. Her plump body was covered in a long loose dress that seemed to Eco like a curtain, with embroidery in several different places.  Eco looked at his father, but he too showed no recognition.

“I’m Valkyria,” she said with a friendly, open smile. “We met during our interview?”

Eco's father’s forehead creased for a moment, then he relaxed.

“Oh, Valkyria! Defense against the dark arts?”

He extended his hand to greet her. Professor Valkyria stared at it for a moment before she shook it.

“Yes, but we call it self protection practices around here,” she explained. “since there isn't so much of a focus on the dark arts. Is this your son?”

“Yes, Eco,” his dad gestured towards him, taking a step back. “Eco, this is Valkyria, one of professors.”

“Nice to meet you, kid!” she said, turning her bright smile at Eco without acknowledging Eco’s dad poor use of the language. “Are you excited for your school year?”

Eco grumbled a response, but Professor Valkyria wasn’t interested. She was watching his father again.

“How about your wife? Did she grow accustomed to the new country yet?”

“My wife hasn’t joined us yet,” his dad explained. “But we did expect some difficulties, this being out first time out…”

“Wow, you've gotten way better with the language!” Professor Valkyria giggled and rested a hand on Eco's father's arm, who shuffled his feet and looked down, scratching his head.

“Thank you,” he said. “I've been practicing harder the past few days.”

“If you have any difficulties, you can count on me for help!” Valkyria clapped with an even wider smile. “Well, have anyone shown you the worker’s bus yet? Come here, I'll show you around.”

“Thank you very much,” Eco’s dad said. “Eco, are you sure you'll be okay on your own?”

Eco couldn't believe his father would ask that in front of a professor! Did he want everyone to think Eco was incapable of taking care of himself?”

“I'm fine!” he hissed.

Certainly his father noticed something was amiss, as his goodbye was restrained and involved no public displays of affection, for which Eco was most grateful. His father and professor Valkyria got on the first bus, which seemed the least battered of the bunch, and didn't come back out again.

“Hey, Eco,” a familiar voice called from behind

Eco turned to find Gabe standing alone a few feet away. He looked uncomfortable, scratching his cheek and staring at the bus.

“Were those your parents?” he asked. “Are they teachers? “

“What?” Eco looked back at the bus, then swirled again to Gabe. “No!” The last thing Eco needed was for his colleagues to think of him as the teacher’s favorite. Perhaps he should have entered the station without his father. Then again, the truth would get out eventually. “Well, my father is. My mother is still in London, though.”

“Cool!” Gabe stood on the tip of his toes, as if trying to find Eco’s dad through the windows of the bus. “What does he teach?”

Eco felt a blush creeping up his face. He hesitated for a moment.

“I won't spoil the surprise!” he managed.

 This made Gabe laugh, but he nodded. It was a splashy, camp sorry of laugh that made Eco smile as well. He joined Gabe walking towards the other buses.

“I thought there were going to be more students. Doesn't the entire wizardry community of Latin America study at this school?”

“Most do, but not all students go there by bus.”

“Oh.” He hasn't thought of that, though in retrospect it seemed obvious. Looking at the students in the station, there were very few people from later years. “What other transportation is there?”

“Anything, really. Students are allowed to go to school by any means they can. Most use floo powder or apparate.”

That must mean there was a village near enough from school that they could get there after using the powder or apparating. Unless…

“They don't do that directly into school, right?” he asked.

“Yeah, they do,” Gabe cocked his head. “Why?”

“It's not safe!” Eco felt his indignation growing. “What if a dark wizard attacks?”

“Why would anyone attack a school?” Gabe looked so puzzled that the idea might never had occurred to him.

“Because children of important wizards can be hostages?”

Gabe laughed again. “No one who's anyone studies at Saciscola. They're all shipped off to Hogwarts, or another of the fancy schools.”

That sounded quite ironic coming from the boy who paid a hundred galleons for his wand. Just how much of ‘someone’ were those kids who were shipped off? Eco debated whether or not it would be rude to ask, but decided to just go ahead and do it.

“I'm not trying to be judgmental or anything, but I thought you were off those fancy people, considering what you paid for your wand.”

Gabe laughed his scandalous laugh again, raising a few eyebrows from the nearby students.

“I could say the same for you!” he said. “I never thought a kid from London would be using the bus!”

Eco shuffled his feet. He wasn't exactly comfortable with that conversation, but then again, he had nothing to hide.

“As you just saw, my father is a teacher. That's not exactly a top paying job. We're depending a lot on whatever the school can offer as benefits for the staff.”

Gabe’s laughter ceased immediately.

“Oh. I'm sorry, that was thoughtless of me. I'm actually pretty much the same.”

Eco raised his eyebrows and it was Gabe's turn to look uncomfortable, avoiding his eyes and blushing.

“I’m an orphan,” he confessed. “I have no family that I know of, and no money to support myself. I've managed to join a government program for unfortunate wizard children, so they are founding all of my education, including the materials, as long as I have the receipts.”

Eco took a moment to process that. He didn't know if he should say he was sorry for Gabe's family or jealous that he could afford hundred-galleons wands. Thinking of his father just a few feet away, though, Eco realized he had no right to make that comparison.

“I'm sorry if I said anything bad. I didn't mean to.”

Gabe just smiled, and Eco smile back at him.

It hadn't been a comfortable conversation, but now that it was over, Eco was glad to have shared something about himself with Gabe. For the first time since they arrived in Brazil, Eco felt like he had made a new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading another chapter of All Beyond the Sidelines!  
> This chapter we got to meet Valkyria (whose appearance also changed completely from the first draft), who’s one of the teachers at the school. I’m not sure how much I should say about her, since we’re probably going to see her classes in one or two chapters. In her initial description, she was a sharply dressed woman with sharp facial features. For reasons I can no longer remember, that’s not how I drew her at all (the Deviantart link it at the bottom). I tried to move the description closer to the sketch, but it still isn’t a perfect match.  
> I was unsure how to manage Eco’s dad grasp of the language. At first I had deliberately written things wrong to get his difficulty across, but later decided to just keep his sentences simple. I hope it worked.  
> I know I said we’d get a grip of the school in this chapter, but it turned out longer than I intended. I’m sure that we’ll get to meet the school next chapter, along with at least two other major characters. I haven’t been able to finish Gabe’s redesign yet, so I’ll probably have a different character on Deviantart next week as well.  
> Here’s Valkyria on Deviantart: http://erikdowser.deviantart.com/art/Valkyria-650482310?ga_submit_new=10%253A1481399272


	4. Saciscola

Chapter IV - Saciscola

Eco and Gabe stayed together in one of the buses once time has come for them to go. It had two rows of double seats separated by a narrow corridor, and those seats felt spacious enough (there were about thirty of them in the bus). However, they smelled old and felt greasy. Gabe actually extended a towel on his seat before sitting. Struggling to find a topic, Eco defaulted to what he had just heard about Gabe’s background.

"Were you born in this city, Gabe?" he prodded.

Gabe shrugged. "I dunno. The orphanage where I grew up was here, though. I never really asked a lot of questions, but I always assumed my parents died when I was young..."

He didn't seem uncomfortable with the subject, so Eco pressed on, "You were brought up a Muggle orphanage, then?"

"Oh, no. We have orphanages run by the magic ministry here. I got relocated a lot, and my early memories are kinda fuzzy, so maybe I did stay in Muggle orphanages for a while until I used some accidental magic and was transferred to a magical institution."

That made sense. Gabe probably wouldn't know as much as he did about the wizardry scene in Brazil unless he had been brought up by wizards.

"And how was it like there?"

Gabe shrugged. "Normal, I guess. I had to go through some basic schooling with the older kids, but I tried to avoid them the best I could."

Gabe looked less comfortable than before, so eco hesitated before asking, "Why?"

Gabe shrugged. His silence stretched enough that Eco thought he wouldn't reply. Finally, he did.

"They weren't really mean, per say, but even those who were just a few years older looked very imposing. They broke all sort of rules, and the workers seemed afraid to call them out for it. They dangerous prank items and even drugs, they stole stuff - one of them had managed to get a wand from some distracted fellow on the street, and they would pass the wand around trying spells on walls and stairwells and younger children. Most of them thought it was fun, and would say they were looking out for us, teaching us to be strong. They believed it too, and so did I." Gabe shrugged. "I miss them sometimes."

Eco wasn't sure how to respond to that. He cleared his throat. "Aren't they studying here?"

"Some of them are,” Gabe stared through the window at the slowly passing streets. His eyes didn’t fix on anything in particular. “Many have been arrested or killed for one infraction or another. Either way, I'm not sure what we'd talk about if I met them at Saciscola..."

To that, Eco had no response again. An uncomfortable silence multiplied for several ten seconds as his brain struggled to latch onto a new topic. He found it.

“Sa-Saciscola!” he stuttered. “You keep saying that name, but isn’t the Brazilian School of Magic called Castelobruxo?”

Gabe turned to Eco again, now smiling and nodding.

“It was, until last year. One of the Professors started a campaign to rebrand the school to give it a more local feel. It was on the front page of every newspaper for a while, though I guess by the time you came to Brazil, no one cared about it anymore…”

After that, as they kept discussing interesting bits of news, Eco and Gabe also looked around to try and identify other first years that could be potential friends, but could identify no likely candidate. All others seemed either too old or were already in groups of their own, and neither Gabe not Eco had the courage to try and talk to a whole group at once. Instead they occupied their time by trying to correct Eco's pronunciation of some random Portuguese words he still had trouble with.

 Once the bus actually started to move, it was almost too noisy to allow conversation, but that only prompted everyone to talk and laugh harder. Eco and Gabe were no different, and they barely noticed the scenery changing through the window.

 The voyage was much shorter than Eco had anticipated. He had been prepared to stay overnight in the bus, despite the lack of either bathroom or snacks aboard. The trip took no more than two hours, though. When the bus arrives at their last stop, no one took any notice, assuming it traffic lights in that never ending city. It was only when the bus driver got up that they looked at him.

“Last stop, Saciscola!” he announced, as if there had been other stops.

“Already?” Gabe asked, surprised. “I always thought the school was in a deep forest somewhere…”

Eco had assumed the same. His image of a magical school in South America had always involved an exotic jungle untouched by mankind. It might be silly, but if a local shared his views, they weren’t as farfetched as they sounded.

As the boys looked through the window, though, they found what looked like a medium sized private condo. It couldn't have been less impressive even if they had found a building.

“Perhaps it has been magically cloaked to hide it's true appearance?” Eco suggested, unable to contain the hope from his voice.

“Perhaps…” Gabe said, clearly humoring him.

As soon as the bus opened its doors, all children struggled to be the first ones out. Close to the front, Eco and Gabe managed to get off quickly enough. There were no chariots waiting outside. Instead, two of the professors from the other bus approached as if to organize the children. Eco tried to find his father, but could locate neither him not Professor Valkyria.

Instead, the professor closest to him was a man with a deep tan, with a bowl-shaped black hair just like Gabe’s. He had very light green eyes (he was the first person Eco noticed with that eye color since coming to Brazil) which scanned the children disdainfully. What was most remarkable about him, though, was that he seemed to be wearing shrubbery instead of clothes. A cloak made of uncountable leaves hung around his body in several shades of green. There were also fruits growing on his cape – some grapes, apples, oranges, mangos and things Eco couldn’t even name. There were even bugs on some of the fruits, and Eco could swear there was a worm poking out of one of the guavas. Before he could check, though, the man commanded in a powerful voice, “First years, to me!”

The shrubbery professor didn't seem at all excited to be there. Rather, he seethed. His colorful cape of fresh leaves, fruits and flowers couldn’t be comfortable. At a distance, the outfit actually worked, but as the professor approached, it just looked weird. Eco kept expecting a big or a snake to poke out of the foliage. Or maybe it would all just fall apart. Hopefully, the professor had some actual clothes beneath that cloak. Eco exchanged a look with Gabe, who was giggling.

“I take it that's not standard fashion?” Eco asked.

“Standard? No. But it's becoming more popular thanks to him.”

Eco studied the outfit again, but couldn't really find any proper reason why. “Is it comfortable?”

“Doesn't look like it,” Gabe said. “But they think it's patriotic.”

“They?”

“The Alliance for Brazilian Magic. Or ALBRAM, as they usually call themselves. They are an old movement trying to get Brazilian wizards to go back to their roots, which can mean pretty much anything depending on who you ask. They seem to have becoming more popular lately, though I’m not really sure why. Changing the school’s name was meant to serve this goal, and he is the professor who sponsored it.”

Eco didn't remember hearing anything about that Alliance ever since he and his father has gotten to the country, but then again he hadn't really been interested in knowing more about the political scenery in the community.

Before he could make any more observations about their professor, though, all first years seemed to have been gathered.

“I am Professor Cesar,” the man said. “Allow me to be the first to welcome you to Saciscola, the finest school of Brazilian Magic in the world.” Eco wasn't quite sure if the professor was joking, but there were some giggles through the crowd all the same. “Proper introductions will be made later, after the sorting ceremony. “

“There's a sorting ceremony?” Eco whispered excitedly.

“This year, yes.”

It wasn't Gabe who replied. Eco looked sideways to find a dark skinned girl that looked older than any other first year. She had her hair partly dyed in red and purple and a piercing on one side of her nose. She looked half Asian, half Indian – which Eco supposed made her entirely Asian, but it looked as if she might also have a Japanese parent. Eco was fairly sure he'd have noticed her on the bus if she'd been there.

“What so you mean?” he asked.

The girl made a bubble gum, starting with vacant eyes at professor Cesar. She was wearing black eyeliner. She popped her bubble before replying, “They come up with a new nonsense like that every year. “

“Barbara Strahtman!” Professor Cesar called suddenly. “What are you doing here? “

The girl – Barbara - didn't seem to think the Professor’s attention was a cause for alarm. Her eyes remained vacant and she popped another bubble before replying. “The headmistress sent me to wait for you. She has a message…”

Barbara took a hand out of one of her skirt pockets and offered a crumpled letter in Professor Cesar’s general direction. He grumbled something about owls while shuffling through the first years to get the letter.

“Fine!” he hissed as he took the letter. “You can go now.”

“I'll take the carriage,” Barbara said.

Professor Cesar glared at her, but he didn't complain. Instead, he pushed the gates open.

“Are you a fourth year?” Eco tried to guess.

“First year. Like you,” she said without looking at him. “But I'm too rich to use the bus. No offense.”

“Well, don't mind me them,” Eco said, offended. He glanced at Gabe, but his friend seemed strangely intimidated. Not so strange, considering the girl’s appearance and demeanor.

“You don’t know much about the school, then?” Eco asked her.

“More than he does.” She indicated professor Cesar with her head, who pretended not to notice while he waved the first years through. “I've only been here for a couple years, though.”

“I've heard about you!” Gabe blurted suddenly. “You're Barb the Tard! You're the only student ever to fail all classes at once. They said your family had to pay a fortune not to have you expelled.”

Eco widened his eyes at the rudeness, but Barbara didn't seem to move at all.

“Yep. My fame proceeds me. “

Eco had no intention of being rude, yet he had to ask, “You failed _all_ courses?”

“Every single one,” Professor Cesar cut in. “Two years in a row. She didn't even show up to the exams.”

Barbara just made another bubble and popped it absent mindedly. All students watched her for a few more seconds until Professor Cesar cleared his throat. He had managed to open the gates and stood at the other side by very battered looking carriages. There were only two of them, and they were all pulled by what seemed to be headless mules. The students started wide eyed at the animals, which made Professor Cesar look rather pleased with himself.

 “Impressive, aren't they?”

No, they were not. Like most things in that place, Eco thought the mules looked halfway between goofy and miserable. From the silent glanced the other students exchanged, Eco assumed they agreed with him.

“You are allowed to touch them,” Professor Cesar continued.

No one did. The moment dragged on as Professor Cesar watched them eagerly. Eco himself watched the flies that buzzed from one mile to the next. Finally, as Professor Cesar’s enthusiasm started to dwindle, Gabe felt sorry enough for him that he forced himself forward and gingerly poked one of the mules with the pinky of his left hand.

Fire exploded from the mule’s neck, startling both the students and the flies away from it. Right on the next moment, though, the mule was already lazily settled, and the flies resumed their buzzing.

That seemed to satisfy Professor Cesar, who smiled again. “Don't worry, they're not dangerous… if you know how to deal with them.”

“He teachers Natural Magic, by the way,” Barb said.

“Natural magic?” Eco had never heard of such thing.

“It's sort of a mix of herbology, magical creatures…” Gabe said helpfully. “And I guess that's it.”

“Pretty much,” Barb said. “Cesar thinks it's patriotic to study the wildlife. I have my own opinions…”

There was space for four people per carriage, which meant all thirteen of them had to squeeze together into the two carriages. Professor Cesar had a separate mule saddled for himself, but other professors and staff seemed to be unwilling to join them. They probably had their own ways of getting to school.

“Hup hup!” Professor Cesar cried.

As the professor set his own headless mule to walking, the other animals whined and started pulling the carriages. Eco didn't know how they could whine without a head, and he realized he didn't really want to know. As the carriage began shuddering through the trail, Eco could barely move as he was sandwiched between bony Gabe and decidedly not bony Barb. Gabe muttered apologies each time a bump on the road threw him against Eco, and Eco himself had done the same the first few times. As it seemed like that would be going on for a while, though, and Barb seemed to be making an effort to pretend her mind was absent from her body, Eco stopped bothering and instead watched the scenery around them.

There was a forest to their right, which was kind of exciting. While Eco had no fantasies that it would be anything like the Forbidden Forest he had heard so much about, he supposed that it might hold some exciting things of its own. Professor Cesar must have noticed Eco's gaze, as he said with an excited voice.

“To your right you can see Saciscola’s Rainforest. It contains all sorts of magical creatures native to this habitat, and also…”

Barb had jabbed Eco's ribs three times before he noticed she was trying to get his attention, rather than moving along with the carriage. He wasn't pleased to have his attention drawn from the first remotely interesting thing on this desolate land, and was kind of surprised to see Barb was smiling, and looking left rather than right.

 Eco couldn't see what she was looking at. In fact, the left side seemed mostly bare, with dry grass half peeled away from the arid soil, with deep gashes as if a dinosaur had scratched it. There _were_ trees, but they were all crooked and twisted as if writhing in pain for survival.

“Guess which side is actually natural and which side gets all the magical buffs?” she asked.

Barbara hadn't been loud, but it had been enough for Professor Cesar to hear. “Are you claiming magic isn't natural, Barbara? You think we submit ourselves to the dried land and foul air that the foreign invaders forced upon us?”

Barbara smiled the slightest of smiles. “He just can't take it.”

Indeed Professor Cesar couldn't. Whatever he had been planning to say about the Local Forest was lost in his speech about foreign invaders. Eco wasn't quite sure what the professor meant by that, but it seemed pretty clear that Eco fit the bill better than anyone else. He avoided looking at Professor Cesar, but felt a knot in his stomach as he tried to ignore all the bile the professor was spewing over them. Eco glanced sideways at Gabe to find he too looked uncomfortable, even though he seemed much more native than even Professor Cesar. At Eco's other side, Barbara was still smiling, seemingly quite content to have raised s fire without actually listening to a word of the result.

 Eco looked at the lush, mysterious forest on the right side, and at the dry, twisted horridness on the left. Both of them seemed interesting on their own. With Professor Cesar's voice shooting over them, though, Eco could only be reminded of how he hated that place, and how he missed his home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading another chapter of All Beyond the Sidelines!  
> This time we met Barb and Cesar, who are both major characters in the story. I hadn’t settled on Professor Cesar’s appearance before starting the chapter (though he already had the cape in the first draft), but I decided to make him look less like Gabe than in the original draft.  
> As importantly, we also have reached Saciscola, finally (or at least the grounds). I was starting to feel like the chapter was growing a bit long, as I added the conversation expanding Gabe’s backstory during the revision, but hopefully I’ve managed to find a good stopping point. Thinking ahead to the next chapter, we should get to know other two characters (the last ones for a while), though I still have to choose between two stopping points. I guess we’ll find out next week.  
> By the way, if you’re curious why I decided to change the name of the school, the reason is very simple: I only found out the Brazilian school had an official name after I had already written most of the story and grown attached to the name ‘Saciscola’. I decided to come up with an in-story reason for keeping it, but I’m not too sure either way. If you have an opinion on that, feel free to leave it in the comments.  
> I was afraid I’d miss the deadline for revising this chapter (a deadline which only exists in my mind), and I’ll fully blame Final Fantasy XV for that. For better or worse, I’ve spent most of my leisure time in December playing it.  
> This week, I’m uploading Barb’s picture to Deviantart (though again, the description doesn’t fully match her). It’s one of my favorite sketches so far: http://erikdowser.deviantart.com/art/Barbara-651804782?ga_submit_new=10%253A1482023018


	5. Sorting

Chapter 5 - Sorting

There was no castle waiting for them at the end of the road. Rather, there was a large square building that looked suspiciously like a repurposed factory. The windows were small and squeezed close to the ceiling, which seemed to be made of aluminum and had roundish objects that Eco assumed were some kind of ventilation system. The walls were straight and painted beige. Most of the paint had peeled away, though, leaving a gray, moldy concrete.  
“The pride of the nation,” Barbara said between gum bubbles.  
“Finally something we can agree on!” Professor Cesar said, and for a moment Eco thought he had missed the sarcasm. “It could use a renovation, but Saciscola is by far the greatest magical institute in the world. We may lack the resources and the mystique of some of the more visible schools, but here we have the opportunity to build our own tradition here. And we'll make it a good one.”  
The way Cesar glared at the students made it quite clear that nothing good would come to anyone who blemished his envisioned tradition. Eco and Gabe exchanged a look, but no one reacted in any way other than Barb popping another bubble.  
The doors of the building were opened by a small witch with skin so white her veins seemed to be tattooed on her face and exposed arms. She had shoulder length hair, graying and unkempt, seemingly imitating something that might have been fashionable in the sixties. From the looks of her wrinkles, she must have been old then already. In present time, though, she was merely baffling. Barbara sighed her deepest sigh yet, rolling her eyes. Behind the white woman stood a group of fifty or so students. They seem to range from first to seventh years, much as the group from the bus.  
“Welcome to Saciscola,” the witch beamed with a smile that was mostly yellow.  
Professor Cesar bowed his upper torso towards the woman. “Headmistress.”  
So that was the headmistress?  
“Thank you for bringing them, Professor Cesar. Students! You should all know me already. For those who don't, I am Carmen Barbosa, Headmistress of Saciscola. Now that you have joined your fellow students, we shall go to the banquet.”  
The headmistress indicated the way behind her before marching back inside. Professor Cesar waved the students to follow and marched behind her. Gabe and Eco exchanged a glance before entering. The entrance hall was as the exterior had suggested it would be: bare, smelly and decrepit. Eco and Gabe looked tentatively at the other students, trying to identify the first years. Some of the likely candidates even looked back, bit quickly glanced away embarrassed.  
The Headmistress led them through a narrow corridor. Even though it was lit by magic, there were Muggle lamps still hanging from the ceiling, some of them in such a state of disrepair that they wouldn't remain hanging for much longer. The next room was a large cafeteria. It smelled of stale oil, and in that damp environment Eco could almost feel the oil hanging to his skin. It was lit in much the same way as the corridor, but there were several big plastic tables painted in different bright colors spread through the room. Eco noticed Professor Cesar recoiled at the sight of the room, as if not even he could pretend it was impressive.  
The students expected to be directed to one of the nearby tables, but instead the headmistress continued walking to the end of the room without addressing them. Some of the children stopped along the way, glancing at one another unsure whether they should follow our sit down. The table the headmistress went to was the only one made of wood, and seemed like it might have been impressive someday, half a century ago. Now, there was a black plastic bag wrapped around one of the legs, possibly trying and failing to hide the resin chewed away by termites. Eco’s dad, Professor Valkyria and one other young man already sat by it. Upon reaching the table, the headmistress turned, smiling.  
Eco looked behind him to find that there must be around a hundred students, all ages considered. None of them were wearing uniforms, which only now Eco realized hadn’t been in their shopping list.  
“Welcome.” That seemed to be the only thing any of the adults had to say. “Welcome to Saciscola! This year we have great news for you, both returning students and new. Do not take seats yet!” Some of the students who had sit got up hurriedly. Others, like Barbara, pretended not to hear. “First, it is my pleasure to announce that we are welcoming a new professor at our school. A round of applause to Professor Doran, our new Muggle Studies and History of Magic teacher. “  
Eco's father rose from the wooden table, bumping into it. He turned red as he tried to keep a water pitcher from falling, while with the other hand he saluted the mass of students.  
“That brings us to a total of four professors, which leads me to our second piece of good news: from this year onwards, newcomers will be sorted into four houses! The most senior professors already choose which houses they'll head: Professor Cesar will be the head of Ravenclaw, Professor Valkyria of Slytherin and Professor Rafael of Gryffindor, which makes Professor Doran the head of the Hufflepuff House! “  
Professor Cesar coughed an indignant cough.  
“Oh, right!” the Headmistress covered her mouth with one hand. “The houses have been named after local magical creatures chosen by professor Cesar, so forget what I just said! Cesar is head of the Dream Owl House, Valkyria heads the Fire Snake House, Rafael the Golden Lion Tamarin House and Doran the Anteater House!  
That seemed to mollify Professor Cesar, who smiled. He wasn't the only one, as Barbara let or a very loud derisive snort. Some older students seemed to share her sentiment, though most were content just exchanging sarcastic looks.  
“We have prepared a very special sort of sorting ceremony this year. Each student will speak to one of the professors, who will then ask a series of questions to determine which House suits you best. Form a single line here, and let's begin!”  
Eco noticed his father trying to catch his eye, so he quickly looked away. The only thing could make studying at that place worse would be to be stuck at Hufflepuff. He quickly lowered his gaze and tried to put other students between them.  
“What?” Gabe asked.  
“My dad. Hide.”  
Gabe shrugged and hunched, but he wasn't really into it. Eco would have explained the shame of Hufflepuff but at that moment his eyes met with Professor Cesar’s, who beckoned him forward. Eco hesitated, but even though Ravenclaw wasn’t Gryffindor, it was second best. He stepped between the other students and stood in front of Professor Cesar by the table. The room seemed to grow quieter, and Eco couldn't quite tell whether it was from anticipation or if an actual spell isolated the professors from the students.  
“You're the boy from London, aren't you? Professor Doran’s son?” Eco nodded. “A foreigner.” Professor Cesar's face twisted at the word. “And a professor’s son.” Cesar dismissed Eco with a hand wave. “You're such a Fire Snake.”  
A Fire Snake? A Slytherin?  
Professor Cesar was becoming another student to come forward.  
That was their selection ceremony? He was too be placed in Slytherin because professor Cesar was xenophobic? Ordinarily, Eco wouldn't have been too bothered by Slytherin, but that hadn’t been a fair selection. He hadn’t been sorted because of who he was. He opened his mouth to argue, or perhaps to ask for an explanation, but did neither. What did he care if it was unfair? What did he care to be sorted seriously in any one of their stupid knock off houses? Eco closed his mouth and stalked off to the green plastic table, over which he now could see there was a piece of cardboard with a wormy looking snake drawn on it. The colorful scribbles around it could be fire.  
There was no food at the table. He was the first student there. He knew he should be watching the Sorting Ceremony, at least in order to watch out for Gabe. But Eco couldn't quite take his eyes from the crudely drawn snake in front of him, and couldn't break the scowl from his face. That was just fine. He was expecting decadence, and that was what he got. Perhaps he could send a message to mom. By now Eco was prepared to accept she’d either forgotten how to use the internet, or forgotten her password. He'd send an owl tomorrow. He'd apply to be transferred to Hogwarts, to the US, everywhere but here.  
“You got Cesar too?”  
Eco looked up to find Barbara sitting across from him.  
“He sent you to Slytherin?” Eco asked, his voice muted.  
The corner of Barbara's mouth twitched in what could have been either the shadow of a smile or a flicker of disgust.  
“No. I'm a Fire Snake. Apparently, being the daughter of rich people does that to you.”  
“So does being a foreigner.”  
“I'm sure Cesar isn't happy your father was admitted as a teacher when there are so many other competent national candidates.”  
She snorted at her own comment, making her gum bubble sag. She seemed to hibernate back into her own thoughts after that.  
“So that's it for our first sitting ceremony!” The Headmistress’s voice boomed through the room. Eco looked up to find out that indeed all students had been placed, and indeed he and Barbara were the only Slytherin students. “It seems like we ended up with some inequality this year, but that was too be expected.” Half the students seemed to have been lumped into Hufflepuff. “If anyone is unhappy with their placement—” All those students raised their hands. Eco spotted Gabe amidst the Hufflepuffs, imitating the other students after he realized they had all raised their hands. “— that's too bad. The decision is final and will stay with you for the next few years. “  
Eco figured as much.  
“Over the following weeks, we will find a way to arrange the rooms so that there are specific dormitories for each house.” Eco exchanged a glance with Barb in their long, empty table. “Until then, week be using the old dormitories.”  
Eco didn't know other he should be relieved or impressed by the lack of infrastructure, considering it meant he wouldn’t be as isolated from the other students.  
“During free periods, students will now be required to retire to House specific common rooms, where you'll have the opportunities to form true bonds with your colleagues.” Eco glanced at Barbara again, but she no longer seemed to be listening to the speech. “That also holds true for the meals. Students are required to sit together with their house mates, or else they’ll lose points for – Oh! I forgot to mention there is going to be a House Cup! Whatever you do right earns you points for your house, whatever you do wrong loses points, and whichever house is last will have to go through a public shaming determined by the winning house, so remember each student's counts!”  
The Headmistress’s eyes drifted to the Hufflepuff table, as did those of most students. The Hufflepuffs outnumbered all others combined.  
“I know what you're thinking,” she said. “But let us be honest: everyone that manages to lose to the Hufflepuffs really does deserve a public shaming! They might be many, but they're only Hufflepuffs!” Many students at the yellow table lowered their heads, among them Gabe, with his face very red. Eco's father too had turned red, and glanced around uncertainly at the headmistress. “Just joking! Jeez, you dears are so sensitive!”  
Eco kept looking at Gabe, who hadn’t raised his head yet. Eco had the uncomfortable impression he was crying.  
“We are looking forward to great things from the Anteater House!” Professor Cesar said curtly. “That said, the banquet is served in the back of the room.”  
Professor Cesar pointed, and Eco looked behind the professor’s table to spot an aluminum counter that let off a continuous cloud of steam. It seemed way too small for all students, even considering how laughably few they were.  
“You may rise and—” Professor Cesar tried.  
Professor Valkyria coughed very loudly. Professor Cesar looked at her. Her simile seemed rather fake while she muttered something to the deputy headmaster under her breath.  
“What do you mean no food?” Professor Cesar’s already unhappy face grew darker. Professor Valkyria muttered more unheard words. “They didn't know? There's always a welcoming banquet how could they not know? This is an outrage!” More muttering. “Habib's for the opening ceremony?” Eco recognized the name of a fast food chain. Professor Cesar's face grew red, then purple. “This is not acceptable!” he enunciated very clearly.  
Professor Valkyria shrugged, and silence followed.  
“Do it once and it's an accident,” Barb said from her corner. “Three years in a row, though…”  
Eco found himself not at all surprised. Of course this had happened three years in a row. The place was a dump.  
For a few minutes, the professors seemed at a loss of what to do. Students started muttering among themselves (Barbara was more concerned with her chewing gum). The Headmistress said nothing at all, and she was actually smiling while she watched professor Cesar, Valkyria and Rafael (the fourth young man at the table) discussing what to do. Eco's dad seemed absolutely horrified at the chance someone might ask for his opinion.  
In the end they indeed settled on ordering food. Professor Cesar seemed particularly unhappy with this, as apparently nobody knew a delivery for typical recipes. Instead they got middle eastern food on professor Valkyria’s suggestion. The way they did so only after counting the number of students suggested to Eco that they had gone for the cheapest option.  
The result was that one hour later, Eco and Barbara were handed two of what seemed to be minced meat mini pizzas.  
“Urgh,” Barbara groaned. “I don’t eat meat.” She sneered at her food.  
“Well, dear, I'm afraid you'll just have to scrape the meat off and eat the crunchy bits.” Professor Valkyria had joined their table, being the head of the house. “Perhaps you could give it to Eco?” She smiled at him. “Don’t worry, by morning the food supply will have been reestablished and you can have a nice breakfast to make up for the frugal dinner.”  
Barbara didn't reply, but she did start scraping long green nails over the pizza to get all meat out (there was no cutlery). It wasn't too hard, since the meat seemed like an oozy blob rather than actual meat. Barbara didn't offer her scrapings to him, which was just as well.  
As the teachers did their best to corral disgruntled out of the room, Eco tried to inch closer to Gabe. Considering how the other boy was looking around and stepping slower than his Hufflepuff counterparts, he may have been looking for Eco as well.  
“Hey there,” Eco called. “What do you think of the school so far?”  
“I always thought that the best perk of not going to Hogwarts would avoiding Hufflepuff,” Gabe muttered. “I can't believe I managed it nonetheless.”  
“You're not Hufflepuff,” Barb cut in. “You're an Anteater.”  
“Well, I'm sure my dad wasn't thrilled either,” Eco said. “At least you have most of the school with you.”  
“I can't believe they sent you to Slytherin!” Gabe said. “You’re super nice!”  
“I honestly don't care,” Eco lied. “I would be fine with Slytherin, since the only prerequisite is thinking big. Fire Snake, though…”  
“At least the Fire Snake is an actual magical animal,” Gabe said. “Anteater House, though? It has nothing special.”

They separated from Barbara soon. She did not say goodbye, and neither did they, marching behind Professor Rafael to the boys dormitory. Up close, he seemed to be the tallest professor, with dark straight hair fashioned as if it had been windblown. His sandy skinned seemed to indicate a middle eastern origin, as did the very long eyelashes around his dark eyes. He had a handsome face and a muscular build that was displayed by a very non-standard uniform: a sleeveless T-shirt, shorts, a silver chain as a necklace, and a single earing. He led them through a long dark hall with several bunk beds. Eco estimated about half of them would remain unoccupied.  
“Okay,” Professor Rafael said. “You are free to choose your own beds.” With a flick of his wand, torches lit up all around the room. “There are bathrooms by the—“  
Professor Rafael was interrupted by a scream so shrill Eco didn't realize it has come from Gabe until his friend grabbed Eco's arm in a fierce grip. Gabe shrieked again, this time trying to form words and pointing to the middle of the room. All children craned their heads to see what he was pointing at, as did Professor Rafael while Eco tried to shake Gabe's claws away. The point his friend was pointing at was between two of the bunk beds…  
Gabe was pointing at a dead body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading another chapter of All Beyond the Sidelines!  
> All the main characters have been introduced now, though I fear Professor Rafael’s appearance feels a bit rushed. I had fun with the sorting ceremony, though, and with the other issues that followed.  
> The ending of this chapter is probably the first real cliffhanger, and it was also the first time I had actually divided a chapter in the first draft. From now on, I think they are all already divided. I counted twelve more chapters after this, but some seemed really long, so the final count might end up a bit bigger. The next chapter will not only deal with the cliffhanger, but also show us some of the classes.  
> Unfortunately, I don’t have a sketch ready for this week… I have both Cesar and Gabe as WIP, as well as some illustrations I drew on the bus (only one or two of those are spoiler-free, though). I don’t have them scanned yet, though, so I’ll save them for next Saturday…


	6. A School of Secrets

Chapter VI – A School of Secrets 

“Stay calm!" Professor Rafael shouted with his voice high. "Stay calm everyone, and out of the room!"   
But calm they did not remain. Gabe was no longer the only one shrieking, and as scared as they were, all children seemed to be trying to get closer to the body. Eco himself had his eyes fixed on the dead man. There was blood. A lot of blood, like in a horror movie. They hadn't used the death curse then. Did that mean that the criminal was a Muggle? Or maybe just a weak wizard. Eco knew he wouldn't be able to perform that curse, and had serious doubt that either his mom or dad would be strong enough either.   
“Out!” Professor Rafael shouted again. “Out, I said!”   
Eco could barely hear Professor Rafael over all the noise. The professor kept on yelling and even tried to drag some children away, Gabe among them. Still others edged closer to the body. Professor Rafael let go of everyone and pointed his wand at the body. Eco couldn't hear what the professor said, but a translucent dome formed between the children and the cadaver, keeping the closest students from touching it.   
“What is all this noise?” Professor Cesar stood by the doorstep. “Rafael, what are you—” He trailed off as his bulging eyes found the dome Professor Rafael had just built.   
“It wasn't me!” Professor Rafael cried. “It was already here when we came in!”   
While it had never crossed Eco's mind that Professor Rafael would have killed the man, hearing the professor defend himself gave Eco pause. For all he knew of that awful school, it was entirely possible that one of the staff had murdered someone. Except they had all been at the banquet… But Eco had no idea how long that body had been there. He glanced at it, but Professor Rafael's dome grew more and more opaque with each passing moment.   
It took Professor Rafael, professor Cesar, and Professor Valkyria’s combined effort to corral the boys out of their dormitory. Eco wasn't paying attention, though, as he tried to remember how the body had looked. At some point, Gabe had come to his side and was crying hysterically. Eco knew he should try to calm him down, but he couldn't find his own voice. In fact, he could barely concentrate. He knew they were moving, but he didn't know where.   
“Eco! Eco!” Eco had been hearing that voice for a while, and it sounded familiar. It was his dad. He was the only teacher not helping with the students. “Eco, are you okay?”   
Yeah, he was. Dad should help Gabe instead.   
Immediately, dad turned to Gabe, still wailing loudly. His expression altered a little, showing he clearly had no more idea than Eco what to do. Showing also that he was using Legilimency again.   
“Dad!” Eco got off his stupor. “You promised—“   
“Not now, Eco,” his dad said, peering into his eyes.   
Eco turned away. He would leave the room, if only there was anywhere to go. He didn't know the damn school, not to mention there might be a murderer at large. His hand moved immediately to his cellphone before he remembered there would be no signal in a magical school. He looked at his screen with a pervasive sense of loss… before the cellphone vibrated with a new message.   
Eco barely believed it as he swiped his password and realized that yes, he still had perfectly good reception. He raised his head to tell his father before remembering he was mad at him. Eco cast his eyes back to the screen and ignored all new messages to open the one conversation thread that still had no reply. He swiped in a new line:   
Mom, I really want to talk to you.   
His hand hovered for a moment over the send button while he checked whether this message was different from ask the others that he had sent before. He tried not to worry, but it was hard to imagine any task keeping his mother from reading his messages after a whole month.   
Eco pressed the send button.   
“Will you put that down?” his dad said. “This is a serious situation! I think your friend is in shock…”   
“… What did I miss?” Eco glanced sideways towards the new voice. Barbara stood in black pajamas decorated with white grinning skills, her multicolored hair falling around her dark face. Her unconcerned, bored form seemed completely inappropriate for e situation at hand.   
Her lack of concerned barely lasted.. Her usually glazed eyes focused on Gabe as he continued to cry, and her jaws seemed to tighten despite the lack of bubblegum.   
“Miss, no concern,” Eco's dad tried to say. “Miss, no…” he bumbled away, though Barbara took no notice.   
“There’s a corpse in the boys dormitory,” Eco said.   
Barbara's eyes darted from Gabe to Eco, widening in a weirdly hawk like manner that he'd never have attributed to her before then. “Already?”   
Eco frowned slightly, even before he registered what she said. “What do you mean, already? Were you expecting a body to show up?”   
Barbara shrugged, her expression regaining some of her usual detachment. “Not exactly. But weird things happen at Saciscola, at least during the years I've been here.”   
Her voice didn’t match the screams and mayhem around her. Even his father's continued urges for Barbara not to worry seemed distant.   
“What sort of things?” Eco asked.   
Barb shrugged again. “A mass of ghosts just last year. I paid a midnight visit to the bathroom, and on my way back found the most massive herd of ghosts I've ever seen.”   
Eco relaxed a little.   
“Ghosts? What's wrong with them?”   
Barbara opened her mouth as if to produce a bubble, only to realize she had no gum in her mouth.   
“Nothing. Except I've never seen any ghosts in Saciscola before or since, night or day. They were all headed to the forest in such numbers that they were more of a pearl white river than individual ghosts. They were flowing so fast – almost as if they were after something. Or perhaps running away...”   
Eco made an effort to keep his breath steady. There was nothing wrong with ghosts, no matter their number.   
“Then there were the mad men during my first year here.”   
“Mad men?” EcO asked, his voice trembling.   
Without her bubblegum, Barbara seemed to default to shrugging.   
“The professors would call them ‘lost men’, but they're full of crap. Both men showed up at the hall by lunch hour. One of them was babbling and drooling, unable to utter a single cohesive word. After everyone gawked at him for a while, his eyes started rolling and he collapsed, bubbling drool. They removed him to the hospital wing, and that's the last any student heard of him.”   
Barbara's eyes were glazed again, as if she could still see that memory in front of her. “The other man could speak, but he didn't know who he was out what he was doing. He stayed a while in the hospital wing, and in time they started giving him chores. Then when he showed he could use magic well, they let him teach classes.. We now call him Professor Rafael.”   
Eco supposed he should have thought something more meaningful than internally judging the school for getting a stray unknown man as a teacher.   
“Couldn't the ministry recognize him?” Eco asked.   
Barbara’s lips curved in a very slight smile. “Oh, but I don't think he was ever shown to the ministry. You see, I'm fairly sure Rafael was never allowed to leave the school. He must know there's a world out there by now, but I'm sure the headmistress and Professor Cesar are very concerned he'd ‘make a fool of himself’ out there.   
“That can't be right!” Eco said indignantly. “You should report them!”   
Barbara blinked, and slowly she turned to look at Eco.   
“I did. But this is not the developed world, English boy. In ten years maybe they'll follow up on the accusation.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading another chapter of All Beyond the Sidelines!   
> When I had revised most of the chapter yesterday, my computer died on me, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to revise it again on time (I only had a Dropbox backup from the first draft). The bad news is, all my art was there, and the computer I borrowed for the time being has no image editing software (I'll look into some free options if the repairs take too long, though).   
> Luckily, as I mentioned before, I had some illustrations I had sketched while riding the bus to work. I'm linking to one of them below (there's no color or shading, though, as I had been planning to add those in the computer). The illustration for today is the scene when Gabe gets his wand. He's still following the d design, and since I was doing it from memory, it might not match the finished concept very well. Still, I hope you guys like it.   
> As for the story, since I was revising it on a tablet, I expect more mistakes than usual might have slipped through. I wasn't sure whether I should leave Eco's dad use of Legilimency in, since I didn't want comparisons to Queenie, but it was. Minor enough that I hope it won't bother anyone.   
> See you next week!  
> In the Wand Shop (WIP): http://erikdowser.deviantart.com/art/WIP-In-the-Wand-Shop-654491551?ga_submit_new=10%253A1483192463


	7. A Surprise Lesson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> Sorry it took me so long to post this chapter. The thing is, my computer had a meltdown, and I couldn't remember the password for the Archive of Our Own to post using any other computer. Then I moved back to campus, got my computer working again, and will post the chapters that should have been posted as per schedule (until chapter 9).  
> The end notes might be a bit outdated because of that, but I'll keep them there...

Chapter VII – A Surprise Lesson

Eco waited for Gabe by his bunk before breakfast next morning. While his friend was hunched and barely looked up as he got dressed, Eco could see that his shoulders were constantly shaking. While most other children seemed to be discussing the events of previous night excitedly, Gabe still looked beyond consolation.  
“Did—“ Eco tried, unsure of how to best approach him. “Did you know that man, Gabe?”  
Gabe shook his head just as a sob escaped him, and Eco didn't know how to help him. Ehile he also felt shaken, he hadn't cried once, and neither had the other children. Eco saw some of them pointing at Gabe and smiling even now. They didn't say anything out loud, and Gabe didn't seem to notice, but it bothered Eco all the same.  
It was only when they turned to leave for breakfast that Eco realized Barbara had been standing beside him.  
“Woah!” Eco needed a moment to catch his breath, during which Barbara made a bubblegum. “This is the boys’ room!”  
Barbara acted as if she hasn't listened, bursting her bubble and promptly making another. “No, it isn't,” she finally said. “It's just a repurposed classroom.”  
She was right, of course. Since the boys’ dormitory was now unusable, the professors had transfigured the chairs and tables of a classroom into sleeping bags for the children. The bags themselves were comfortable, but the floor was covered in so out of rubber covering that had inflated due to water infiltration (as he assumed from the mold stains on the walls). It was also hellishly hot. Even with ideal conditions, Eco doubted he'd have been able to sleep. Last nights tension only guaranteed that he'd spend the whole night pondering whether the distant noises he was hearing were from rats or something worse.  
When Eco and Gabe continued to breakfast, it was clear that Barbara intended to follow. In the main hall, Eco hesitated by the Slytherin table. He knew Gabe was supposed to leave, but it didn't seem right to leave the other boy alone while he was still so distraught. Gabe watched the Hufflepuff table with visible dread.  
Barbara seemed oblivious to their plight, as she dumped her bag on a chair by the Slytherin table. She eyed them with a very bored expression. “We have to pick up the food at the back, but there's no reason to carry your stuff all the way there.”  
Gabe gasped when she made their separation more imminent. Eco shot her a nasty look, trying to indicate Gabe with a tilt of his head. She didn't seem to notice.  
“I—“ Gabe stuttered. “I guess I should go to my table.”  
While Gabe hesitated, Barbara filled another bubble with air and let it burst. “What for? “  
Gabe looked up. “Well.... Those are the rules, right?”  
Barbara burst another bubble. “Who cares about rules? They are meaningless unless you choose to follow them.”  
Barbara seemed satisfied by that statement, as she left towards the food table. Eco and Gabe exchanged a look before leaving their bags and following. It was just as well that they did, as the food was almost over by then. Each of the three managed to salvage a weird football shaped loaf of bread (“It’s French bread,” Gabe explained), some cheap looking butter and a small cup of watery coffee (“You'll want some milk with that.”)  
On their way back to the Fire Snake table, Eco glanced at the professors' table. Professor Valkyria and Professor Rafael were locked in muttered conversation, while Eco’s father watched silently. Professor Cesar and the headmistress were absent. As they took their seats, Eco could hear some of the new arrivals complaining there was no more food. Professor Valkyria shrugged at them.  
“Where do you suppose the other two are?” Eco asked Gabe, more in an attempt to distract him than out of actual curiosity.  
“Probably in the hospital room. Or out burying—“ Gabe's skin turned a shade of green.  
“Cesar is probably feeding the corpse to his magical creatures,” Barbara said, making Gabe gag. “The Headmistress will be making sure no word of this reaches the authorities.”  
Eco let his bread drop, unable to tell if she was being serious. “They wouldn't cover up a murder if the culprit might still be around!”  
“Oh, gringo, don't be so naïve. I'm sure they know exactly who the culprit is, and they aren't interested in bringing him to justice.” Barbara smiled while she removed the bubblegum from her mouth. “Good thing your dad is working for the other side, so he can give us inside information, huh?”  
So that was why Barbara had decided to tag along. Eco had been wondering. He was still thinking of a reply when a loud boom from the professor's table silenced all students. They all turned to look at professor Rafael, on his feet and with his wand pointing to the sky.  
“You’re probably curious to know about the body that was found in the boys’ dormitory in the previous night. Well, he's been identified as Alberto Correia, an auror working under the United Wizardry Nations Knowledge Organization in World Notions.” This made Barbara giggle, to Gabe's horror. “It's yet unclear what he was doing at Saciscola, and what happened to him. Professor Cesar and the headmistress are currently aiding the ongoing investigation.”  
“That's perfect,” Barbara muttered. If he was from the UWNKOWN, there's no way they'll be able to cover it up. “  
“While investigations are ongoing, a shared dormitory will be prepared with the greatest safety measures the school can provide—“ it was Eco's turn to scoff. “Meantime, classes continue as scheduled. Professor Cesar will be back in time for his Wednesday lessons.”  
There was some muttering at that, but it seemed to brighten Gabe up a bit.  
“Well, that's good isn't it? I mean, if they can catch the culprit…”  
This made Barbara's smile die on her lips. “Don’t count on it. “

Their very first class was Muggle Studies with Eco's dad, which was the worst possible way to kick off his experience with Saciscola. Eco, Gabe and Barbara were one of the first few students to get to class. Eco's father was already there, but his face looked ashen and his arms were trembling slightly as he tried to steady himself on his table. Eco shouldn't be surprised. Back in the UK, his father had occasionally offered private Muggle Studies lessons to make ends meet, but the bulk of his career had been focused on paperwork and Muggle relations.   
It took Eco's dad a moment to notice His son had come in, but when he did, he shot him tentative smile.  
Eco hadn't forgotten the Legilimency incident the previous night, so he looked away without smiling back. It caused him an immediate pang of regret, but when he tried to catch his father's gaze again, he was not looking back, and seemed considerably more shaken than before.  
Eco and Gabe took seats in the first row. All seats were made of steel fixtures with a hard wooden plank as the actual seat, another as the back, and as an attached surface to write on. That surface extended from the right side of the chair in a very uncomfortable way for the left handed Eco to adjust himself to. Barbara said nothing as she abandoned them and propped herself on one of the seats in the back, her legs resting on the next seat.  
The other students trickled in slowly. When it was almost time for class to start and the room remained mostly empty, Eco assumed the others students were ditching already, before he remembered were almost no first years to begin with.  
“Go-Good afternoon, group,” Eco’s dad stuttered. “I'm or new teacher, Doran.” His accent was so pronounced Eco could only guess what he said. “I’m starting teach all…” he choked, making someone giggle. Eco’s dad went red, and he coughed before continuing. “History. General we teach—“  
The door burst open and another student came in. Eco's father watched open mouthed as the boy sat on the back row.  
“Well—“ he tried again, then followed with a sentence so garbled even Eco couldn't had no idea what it meant. More people burst out laughing, and Eco's dad trembling became very visible. Eco felt his own face heat up, his body pressed hard against the wooden seat.  
His dad waited for the laughter to die down before continuing. He had barely managed a sound when the door burst open again, and another student came in. Again Eco's dad was bewildered by this late arrival, as none of the students seemed to think the delay was at all unusual. It took him even longer to regain his line of thought.  
“The subject tomorrow was general aerial view of planet magic story—“  
The new student had a fit of laughter so high pitched Eco half expected the glass panes to shatter. Eco's dad entire skin remained red now, and he tried to mumble some sort of explanation that ended up sounding like meaningless blabber. More giggles and laughing fits seemed to echo in the empty room. Eco's dad tried to take his seat, possibly to hide his trembling legs, but he tripped and almost fell face first onto his table. More students came in, and those were already laughing. Laughter seemed to be the only sound in the room, burning into Eco’s ears. With his jaw set, he turned suddenly in his seat, trying to mark every student that was laughing at his father.  
Those seemed to be all students. Not Gabe. Gabe looked almost as horrified as Eco’s dad, or was he trying to suppress a smile as well? Barbara—Eco was so sure she would be laughing. In fact, the shrill laughter from before was probably hers… But no, Barbara wasn’t laughing. She had her eyes fixed on her desk as if trying to keep her usual detached expression, only she couldn't keep herself from frowning and her jaw from jutting forward in anger.  
The class only went downhill from there. Eco’s dad’s voice shrunk further with every giggle, to the point that even from the first row Eco could make nothing of it, and the little he could make out was gibberish. Though e laughter died down eventually, it was only to give place to gossip and general conversation. Students coming and going out of the classroom so often that Eco had lost sight of who was late and who was just taking a break. He tried thinking of something he could do to help, but came up with nothing.  
When a siren sounded to indicate the end of the class, all students stormed out, even though Eco's father sat up and tried to say something that was oust in the hubbub of their passage. In mere seconds, the only students remaining were Gabe, Eco and Barbara. Eco’s father had his back to them, still trembling as he leaned against his table. Eco took a few steps towards him, hesitated, then approached some more.  
“Dad…”  
“You'd better go on to your next lesson, Eco.” His father's voice sounded almost normal, if a bit too bright. “You shouldn't miss it.”  
Eco didn't really care, but he didn't know whether his father would prefer to be alone. His mom would have known what to do. Eco opened his mouth again, circling the table to meet his father's eyes. The movement surprised dad, who quickly turned his head away. Not before Eco saw how red and wet his eyes were. Eco left, without saying anything else.

Their second lesson was “Defensive Magic”, taught by Professor Valkyria.  
Barb halted on the entrance. Still shaken, Eco halted as well, and they stood there for almost a full minute before he realized something was wrong. He looked up at her. “What happened?”  
Barbara didn't look at him. She stared into the void and burst a gum bubble before replying, “One class was enough for today. I'm ditching.”  
It took Eco a long time to register what she had said. He blinked stupidly as Gabe said, “But— You’ll miss class!”  
Barb smirked, “That's the idea, yes. It's called ditching.”  
“But—“ Gabe’s eyes and he gestured at the classroom as if showing something obvious. “There might be spells to learn! And homework!”  
“Not for me.”  
Eco studied Barb silently. He supposed that was why she had failed two times already. If she wanted another wasted year, it was none of his business, really. She turned away from them and strode lazily away. It was none of his business, but… Eco remembered her expression during his dad's class, which she had endured to the end even though there was nothing anyone could have learned there.  
“Hey, Barb!” he called. “Would you at least join us in the afternoon class?” he though of something that might convince her to come. “I’ll try to talk to my dad at lunch, so—“  
Barb turned swiftly to them again. “You shouldn't. Let your dad be for now.”  
Of course he would. But it felt great that someone cared too. It did mean that he had no other excuses, though. “Would you come anyway?”  
Barb shrugged as she turned away. Eco felt like it was an agreeable shrug, but he supposed he wouldn't find out before the afternoon.  
Like before, Eco and Gabe chose their seats in the first row. The other first students seemed to have been scared off by the bad first impression of the previous lesson, as there were no others yet. The appointed came and went with no other students or instructor. Gabe grew desperate that they might be in the wrong room, and Eco paced the corridor to look for any signs of someone who might help them.  
Ten minutes past the scheduled start, a trio of students entered the room, confirming the place was indeed where the class was supposed to take place. Still, they had to wait five more minutes until Professor Valkyria arrived, a steaming mug in her hands and a condescending smile in her face. She motioned for them all to seat while she ignored her own chair and sat on the table instead.  
“Fifteen minutes,” she said. “That's how much a professor can be late before the class is cancelled, so that's when you should expect me to arrive. For your part, you can be here as late as you like, or not come at all, I don't care. As long as you stay silent. Don't greet, don't knock, just come in if you must.”  
She took a sip of her mug before widening her smile.  
“And when I say I don't care, I really mean it. They'll pay me. The same thing whether I lecture a hundred of you or an empty classroom. If anyone would rather leave now, go ahead. I've brought a novel to pass the time, if no one is left.”  
She produced a thick book from under the table, but while the students exchanged bemused glances, no one left.  
“Now,” Professor Valkyria said, placing the empty up on her table with a happy clunk. “I like to start first year classes with introductions. We’ll each introduce ourselves and show something we know about defense spells. Perhaps your parents taught you something, or you've been practicing beforehand. Let's start with the first row… you, Doran’s boy.”  
He gawked at her, unable to move.  
“Well, start by getting up…”  
Eco did so, and Imagined that his legs must have been trembling much as his father's. At least the other students didn't laugh, probably dreading their turn to do the same.  
“I'm—“  
“To the class, please,” Professor Valkyria interrupted.  
Eco slowly turned to the rest of the class. He should have been relieved to see only two more students, but there was something greatly disturbing about all the empty seats.  
“I’m Eco.”  
“And how old are you, Eco?” she asked, probably believing she was being helpful.  
“I'm eleven.” He could feel professor Valkyria’s eyes on him, and knew that he was expected to say more. “I just arrived in Brazil a few months ago with my father, Professor Doran.”  
One student at the back of the class opened a disbelieving smile at that. Indeed, he had of the faces Eco had marked before. “And I have to say it's been a very disappointing experience so far. The students here don't have the maturity I expected, and the infrastructure is subpar.  
“That’s great,” Professor Valkyria said brightly, as if she hadn't heard a single word. “I'm sure your dad taught you some form of defense spell?”  
Not really, though Eco used to practice several spells with his parents’ wands before Ministry intervention forced them to be more careful. He raised his own wand without any real hope of doing anything. “Protego.”  
A pearly white dome formed around Eco, seeming both solid and durable, opaque enough to block his view from the other side.  
Eco had never managed anything better than Gabe’s smoke. He let his wand drop with surprise. Immediately the dome vanished. For a long moment, nobody spoke. Then Professor Valkyria said, “Well it seems like you've already mastered shield spells. Can you do that again?”  
Eco tried, and again he succeeded. Professor Valkyria walked around him, examining the dome.  
“It's solid…” she said, poking the pearly shield. She brought out her own wand. “Protego!” something dome-like shimmered in the air for a moment, but promptly vanished despite Valkyria’s raised wand. She grunted appreciatively. “Expeliarmus!”  
A red flash shot towards Eco’s shield, then Valkyria’s wand shot through the air.  
She didn't bother retrieving it, and instead tried slapping the dome. “Were you always this good?”  
“No! This is the first time I've ever managed to...”  
“Hm…” she pondered. “I know I'm an amazing teacher, but you wouldn't have learned that without even a demonstration.” She drummed her fingers on her lips. “Can I see your wand?  
Eco lowered it, dissipating the shield before handing it over to Professor Valkyria. She twirled it in her hand, then pointed it up. “Protego!”  
There wasn't even a shimmer this time.  
“Well, it's not the wand.”she frowned. “Expelliarmus!” A puff of red smoke tricked from the point. “Wow, this wand is garbage.” She handed it back to Eco, whose face had grown hot again. “Well, we’ll have time to study it later. Next student, please.” She looked at Gabe expectantly.  
Eco felt a bit guilty of how well he had done, as it seemed to make Gabe more nervous. “I’m Gabriel,” he stuttered. “Ten years old. I'm an orphan. I don’t know any spells…”  
“Well, that’s okay!” Her good mood seemed genuine now. “Just copy your friend. To the entire class, come on.”  
Gabe raised his wand to the back of the class. It was so long that it made his trembling all the more apparent. “Pro—“  
A flash of black light burst from his wand, startling no one as much as Gabe himself. Desks flew out of the way his wand pointed and broke to pieces. Then one of the students, the student whose face Eco had marked, started to scream. At first they thought he was merely scared, but the scream grew into a wail filled with pain, and when Eco looked beyond the hands he had raised to protect his face from the debris, he couldn't find the boy behind the pile of broken wood and steel. That did not keep him from noticing the red splatter on the floor.  
Gabe let go of his wand, fell to his knees. Eco too felt as if he'd be sick. Professor Valkyria darted to the back of the room. She already had her wand up, and gasped at what she saw beyond the debris, her face blanching. She started muttering spells in a voice too low for any of them to hear.  
It was almost a full minute before she rushed back to Gabe, and Eco thought she would attack him. Instead, she reached down to the black wand on the floor. Her hand had almost touched it when another burst of black light surrounded the wand, and Valkyria recoiled with a scream.  
She held the wounded hand with her other arm, but not before Eco saw her flesh had been slashed, with gashes that seemed made by claws. Her fingers fell limply in awkward angles, the nails chipped at spots.  
“You are all dismissed,” she growled. “All but you, Gabriel. Wait for me in here, and don't touch that wand. The rest of you, out!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading All Beyond the Sidelines!  
> Again I had to revise this chapter on my tablet, so I apologize if I let something slip off as I fought autocorrect to keep the words I wanted, rather than the ones it thought should be there. It also seemed not to register some of the letters when I typed too fast, but I'm pretty sure I managed to correct all of those instances.  
> This was an exciting chapter to write, and even during revision I think it holds up well. I had tried to show the different professors with very different methods and ideas of what a lesson should be like. Next chapter we’ll continue onto Professor Cesar's class.  
> Again, I don't have any illustrations this week except for what I sketched on the bus (work in progress). This time, it's the scene in which Eco's dad enters the bus headed to Saciscola.  
> http://erikdowser.deviantart.com/art/Bus-Station-WIP-656013983?ga_submit_new=10%253A1483819412  
> Thanks for reading!


	8. House Animals

Chapter VIII - House Animals

Eco tried to convince Professor Valkyria to let him stay with Gabe, but she replied that if he didn't stop distracting her, his colleague would die. Still, Eco lingered around the room, hoping to catch Gabe when he left, or help in some other way. He kept imagining himself burst into the room to vouch for Gabe's character, but even to Eco that seemed silly, so eventually he left back to the main hall. There was no food left by then, but Eco didn't feel hungry anyway. Gabe did not join him, and Barbara didn’t appear either. He left alone for their first lesson with Professor Cesar, certain that he'd be unable to take in a single word of the lesson.  
Eco had to check a printed list of lessons and their respective classrooms which had been taped to the main hall without any magical aid, considering some of the tape had already separated from the wall due to heat or humidity. To Eco’s surprise, instead of the class number beside Professor Cesar’s name (as in all other classes), it read Road by the Woods.  
Eco looked around, but no other students seemed to be going out of the classroom. He left alone, then, and quickly spotted Professor Cesar standing on the road, beside the forest as his descriptor suggested. The professor had a table floating over the grass, and a few crates also floating behind it. No students seemed to have arrived yet.  
Eco hesitated. His opinion of Professor Cesar was already pretty poor, but whatever procedures the UNKNOWN aurors were putting him through had left him with wide furious eyes, a set jaw and a disheveled look to his hair and leafy mantle. He stared fixedly at the ground, so he didn't notice Eco approaching. Eco decided to wait for some other student to arrive first before approaching further.  
This proved to be a prudent decision, as Professor Cesar immediately fixed his eyes on the new random student and snapped, “I suppose you felt like you didn't have to bring your books to class, did you?”  
Eco made sure to take his book out of his bag and to hold it in front of his body before joining the “class”. Cesar's eyes locked onto him.  
“So, if it isn't our British student. From what I heard, your British father turned out to be an abysmal teacher. Is that true? Are we going to have to sack him after barely any classes?” Eco was careful not to react. He laid both his book and his backpack down on the table. “I guess you can't really understand me, can you?” Professor Cesar continued. Eco fought down the urge to react. “What was your father thinking, taking his son somewhere he can't even communicate? Or are you just afraid to speak up? You didn't seem to have any trouble mixing in with the infamous Barb, the ‘Tard, did you?”  
“No, he didn't.”  
Eco turned to find Barbara standing behind him. Professor Cesar sneered at her,  
“So have you actually decided to attend this semester?”  
Barbara must have decided the obvious question wasn't worth answering. She chewed on her bubble gum without even acknowledging Professor Cesar. He sneered at her for a moment longer before turning his back on the class.  
Some other first-year students slowly approached the table, and Professor Cesar ordered each of them to leave again. “The class has started ten minutes ago. Lateness is not tolerated.”  
And yet Eco couldn't help but notice that class had not started. Rather, professor Cesar had placed some sort of charm on his table that blurred whatever the professor was laying on it. It took him several minutes still of silent concentration before looking up.  
“Let's see… we've got both students from Fire Snake House, none from Dream Owl, one from Golden Lion Tamarin, and three from Anteater. Very well.”  
Professor Cesar moved to the front of his table, his shrubbery mantle rustling.  
“As you know, I'm Professor Cesar. I teach the most excellent of all arts, the natural magic. The magic of the land. With me, you'll see all live creatures that possess magic of their own, plant or animal. Fitting the new housing theme, I've brought the local animals that name your Houses for the introductory class.  
Professor Cesar flicked his wand, and the concealment charm vanished from the table.  
Eco's eyes were immediately drawn to the Fire Snake, that sure enough was a snake that seemed entirely made of blazing fire. There was no solid body that Eco could see, no head or eyes or mouth, but yet the ribbon of fire was coiled inside its cage with only an end sticking up, slightly curved towards Cesar. The coil unraveled slowly for a moment as the snake turned its head towards the other animals.  
Beside the Fire Snake was what by elimination Eco supposed to be an anteater. He had never seen such thing: like a furry slouch, but with a very long snout and very silly small eyes. Just looking at the creature, Eco couldn’t make out anything magical about it. It recoiled from the snake, pressing itself against the cage bars.  
In a different cage beside it was a small scrawny monkey that looked like an underfed rat with reddish mane. Again, there didn't seem anything obviously magical about it. Looking at the creature, Eco suddenly didn't feel so bad anymore for being kept from the Gryffindor House. The scrawny monkey looked anything but brave, shying away from the students and the other animals in a terrified crouch. It didn't seem like it had been chosen as a House Animal for any reason other than its passing resemblance to a lion.  
In the last cage was a grey owl resting with its eyes closed and its head lowered. Still it managed to keep itself upright in its cage. It didn't seem to be anything special either. It stirred slightly and opened its eyes, staring straight at Eco. Those eyes seemed a bit too big for its body, and there was something off about the color. The more Eco tried to concentrate on them, the less he actually saw. His conscience was drifting. He was clawing his way out of the ground in a city of ruins. He was introducing Barbara to his friends back in London. He was running away from Gabe, who was destroying everything close by. He was….  
He was dreaming.  
It ceased so abruptly that for a few seconds Eco couldn't even tell where he was. Still in the courtyard, he only remained standingdue to some spell. Only vthen he noticed Professor Cesar had covered the owl’s cage with a sheet of cloth.  
“The Dream Owl,” the professor said. “Is one of the most dangerous animals in Brazil. They do not attack humans, but none are immune to their gaze, which makes everyone fall asleep and dream. They usually live in deep forests and are only out at night, meaning that whomever gazes vinto their eyes will be defenseless.”  
Eco could see why that would be the case, yet he couldn't help being fascinated. He wished he could have just another glimpse of those eyes.  
“Next, we have the Golden Lion Monkey.” The creature scooted away from Professor Cesar, who grimaced. “Admittedly, as of yet there is no magical ability that has been conclusively linked to it, but I'm at the turning point of some very promising research that might very well change the way we study natural magic forever!”  
Professor Cesar could probably tell how little his students were moved by his proclamation, as he quickly advanced to the next cage.  
“Now this Anteater, a Giant Anteater, really has no magical properties whatsoever, which is why it seemed like a good fit for the mediocre house. Moving on....”  
Hearing that, Eco was glad Gabe hadn't made it to class. He probably wouldn't have taken that explanation well.  
“Last, we have the Fire Snake. They are very rare, very destructive, and very dangerous. Their fire doesn't usually burn anything,” Professor Cesar stroke the animal softly with a finger through the cage bars. “Unless they're after you. Fire Snakes are forest sprites. If you harm trees or hunt down animals, the fire snake will come for you. Several disappearances, both Muggle and wizard, are reported each year and are actually cases in which a Fire Snake victim has been burned to dust. Hopefully that will make all of you think twice before disrespecting nature.” Professor Cesar looked straight at Barbara, who went on chewing her bubblegum with vacant eyes. “But if you don't, it's not my problem.”  
Professor Cesar continued staring at Barbara as if he expected her to pull out a hatchet and go for the trees. It didn't seem likely, though Eco supposed the professor probably had a reason for disliking her so strongly.  
“Very well,” Professor Cesar said finally. “For this year, you'll be expected to learn how to take care of your House Animal. You shall use the rest of your time to familiarize yourselves with the animals, and I'll expect all students to hand in a sketch of their animal before next lesson, including those students that chose not to join us today.”  
Eco would make sure to tell Gabe later. Considering as the Flag Anteater seemed like a Muggle creature, finding references on the web shouldn't be too hard.  
Eco approached the Fire Snake cage, but there didn't seem to be much to do other than stare at it. Indeed, Barbara didn't seem to care much about it at all. She approached Eco to ask, “How is Fluffy doing?”  
It took Eco a few moments to realize she was referring to Gabe.  
“I don't know. I haven't heard from him since before lunch.” Eco realized then that Barbara still didn't know that there had been anything wrong other than the dead body. He related the events of their previous class in hushed whispers.  
“A student attached another?!” Professor Cesar had sneaked behind Eco and Barbara without making any sound.  
“That’s none of your—“  
“No, professor!” Eco cut in before Barbara could continue. “It was this wand he had, which apparently was made for evil and--”  
Eco trailed off in face of the maniac look that took over Professor Cesar's face.  
“The other Cuca Wand is in Saciscola?” he asked in a whisper.  
“I think that's how the seller called it, yes.”  
With that maniac gleam in his eyes, Professor Cesar did not reply. In fact, he was so still Eco was sure he wasn't breathing.  
Then he pulled out his wand and flicked it at the House Animals, making both the table and the cages vanish.  
“You're all dismissed. Sketches on my desk before next lesson.”  
And he stormed into the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading All Beyond the Sidelines!  
> This chapter felt a bit shorter than the previous one, but I think Professor Cesar’s lesson made for a nice, self contained piece. Now there is only Professor Rafael left (I've peeked ahead in my first draft, and I don't think his lesson is in the next chapter either, but it will come eventually).  
> Unfortunately, I have two pieces of bad news: first, I was unable to prepare any art for this week ( I was working on another sketch showing Gabe wrecking the class, but it didn't get finished enough to be uploadable). My computer is still gone, so I can't even upload the character concepts as Wips either.  
> The second bad news is, I'm moving back to campus next Friday/Saturday, so it seems very unlikely I’ll be able to maintain my Saturday schedule for the next chapter. Worse yet, if my computer still isn't fixed by then, I'm not sure if I'll be able to upload anything at all for a while.  
> Still, I hope everything is fixed by then, so we'll see.  
> Thanks for your support!


	9. Factions

Chapter IX - Factions

After class, Eco hastened in packing his belongings. He told Barbara, “You can go back if you like. I want to check on Gabe.”  
She shot him a blank look. “Does it seem like there's anything better for me to do in this school? I’m going with you.”  
Rushing to the infirmary, they found the door half open. Eco pushed it to reveal a small room cramped with three small beds and a big wardrobe as large as the beds. There were no curtains to hide the occupants, so the burly boy that had been hurt by Gabe was readily visible on the bed closest to the door. He was covered in bandages, but at least there didn't seem to be any blood anymore.  
Gabe himself sat on the next bed over, staring anxiously at the other boy. He didn't seem to realize Eco and Barbara were in the room until she spoke, “We thought Cesar had come here.”  
Gabe jumped with wide eyes before he recognized the two of them. “Oh. Eco. Barbara.” He gave a small smile before looking back down at the other patient. “You just missed him. He wanted to examine my wand. Professor Valkyria didn't like that much, and she was trying to dissuade him as they left.”  
Eco supposed he couldn't really fault Professor Cesar for wanting to examine the suspicious wand, especially considering he didn't seem to have done anything bad to Gabe. Barbara wasn't so receptive.  
“Was he able to pick up the wand?” It was one of the rare moments in which Barbara actually seemed completely awake. Her eyes seemed completely changed, not only focused, but hyper-aware. “Remember how Professor Valkyria couldn't even touch it?”  
Gabe frowned at her, “You're right… That might be the reason why Professor Valkyria was so upset.”  
Eco wasn't really sure what to make of that new information. He shook his head. “But they can't leave you without a wand. How will you attend classes?”  
“We will lend him a wand for now.” Professor Valkyria had entered the room. “I've just discussed it with Professor Cesar, and that seems like the safest arrangement.” And yet, Professor Valkyria seemed distinctly unhappy with it.  
“And meanwhile Cesar will have unrestricted access to a murder weapon,” Barbara accused. “It's just what we needed after his recent indiscretion.”  
While Eco fully expected Professor Valkyria to snap at Barbara for accusing a professor, the woman seemed to grow calmer instead. She regarded Barbara silently for a long moment before saying, “Well, someone killed that man, and I know it wasn't I. If Professor Cesar had anything to do with it, I'm afraid I won't last very long myself.”  
That shocked Eco enough that he exclaimed, “But he's your colleague!”  
“Exactly!” Professor Valkyria smiled in satisfaction. “As far as workplace politics go, I'm definitely the one nobody likes in Saciscola. Hopefully I'll be able to get more leverage with your father here, but Rafael is Cesar's lapdog, and Cesar is also the Headmistress’s favorite by far.”  
Eco wasn’t sure how to reply to that, so he kept his silence.  
“Who was the victim?” Barbara asked.  
“Alberto something or other. While he was definitely part of the UNKNOWN, he must have been pretty unimportant, or the press would have already released something about him.” Professor Valkyria sighed. “Anyway, I have a patient to attend to, and you kids probably have homework to attend to, and sex, or whatever you kids do with your free time.”  
Eco's shock was clearly not shared by Barbara, who burst a gum bubble without batting an eyelash. Or by Gabe, though it could just be that he hadn’t heard her, his attention again focused on the boy he had hurt.  
“May I stay here? I—“  
“No, you may not. Go along, all of you, hush hush. “

On their way to the dining hall, there still seemed to be something frenetic about the way Barbara moved. She made and burst bubbles at an impressive rate., stepping twice longer than either of the boys. Gabe, on the other hand, seemed lethargic, doubtlessly still thinking about his victim in the infirmary. Knowing the other student would be all right, Eco couldn't really dwell on the accident. He was much more concerned about the casual way in which Professor Valkyria seemed to consider Professor Cesar's possible guilt.  
“Do you subscribe to any daily newspaper?” Barbara asked in a strained voice between two bubble bursts.  
“What?” Eco asked. “I don't…”  
“You, fluffy!” Barbara interrupted, poking Gabe with her finger.  
“I get the Magical State of São Paulo,” he muttered.  
“Is there an obituary?”  
Gabe frowned, “I never looked for it, so I don't know. You think that man from yesterday—”  
“Valkyria said his name was Alberto something.”  
There was something weirdly compelling about the way placid Barbara became so passionate. He said, “Google must know something.”  
“Who?” Barb asked, her hyper-focused eyes finding his.  
“Here, let me show you.” He pulled out his smartphone and began sweeping. “How do you spell obituary?”  
Gabe helped him to write and decipher some of the Portuguese text, but quite soon they had managed to find a list.  
“I don't know about this…” Gabe said. “This is a Muggle obituary, and you did say they were trying to cover up the crime.”  
Barbara shook her head, getting closer to the screen.  
“They can disguise the locale and the cause of death, but not that it happened.”  
“Yeah, “ Eco agreed. “And Muggle obituaries often list wizards. It’s usually the details that aren’t very accurate, but still...”  
Scanning through the list, the task didn't seem as simple as they had assumed.  
“There's this Alberto Costa, historian,” Eco said. “But also Alberto Carlos, singer…”  
“And here is a Edgar Alberto,” Gabe pointed out. “And I think there are more down—“  
“It doesn't matter,” Barbara interrupted, pulling out a tissue and a pen from her pocket and scribbling furiously. “We’ll just have to check all of them.”  
“The Muggle net can give us some clues,” Eco said. “But we’ll need some information of them linked to the magical world…” And suddenly Eco had an idea. “My dad and some colleagues had been trying to start a wizard internet back in England. Maybe they managed to get some data from here as well.”  
“You’re right!” Barbara said. “If he knew he was moving here, the smart thing to do would be gathering data.”  
Their decision to move to Brazil had been so sudden that Eco wasn't that confident. However, considering there was a magic school there, perhaps his dad had taken special interest even before deciding to join.  
“I don't have the password, though,” Eco said. “Maybe if dad's at dinner…”  
He was, but he sat between Professor Cesar and Professor Rafael.  
“That won't do,” Barbara said, bursting three bubbles as she said it. “We should get him alone.”  
They ate in tense silence, interrupted by the occasional bubblegum explosions and the sounds of Eco's phone as he kept trying to find more. Gabe once yelped and choked on his food as Professor Valkyria walked in, but neither Eco nor Barbara decided to comment.  
“There seems to be a lot of muggle news about the singer Alberto. I doubt he's our guy,” Eco commented.  
Again, neither Barbara nor Gabe gave any sign of hearing him.  
It was only when the first few students started going to the dorms that Barbara's eyes refocused. She looked like a cat as she shot furtive glances at the professor's table, prowling.  
When Eco's dad did get up though, he did so together with all other professors.  
Barbara hissed something Eco would rather not have heard.  
“I have an idea,” Eco said, watching them go. “If I go there and ask to speak with my father in private, no one will think it's weird, right?”  
Barbara scrunched up her face, “They would if we’re with you.”  
Eco arched an eyebrow at her, “I'll report back, then.”  
Barbara clearly didn't like that arrangement, but also lacked better ideas, “Fine, but give them at least an hour to disperse. I think Professor Cesar might try to eavesdrop just because he hates you both.

Barbara's idea definitely didn't work, for when Eco knocked on the professors' room an hour later, it was Professor Cesar who opened it.  
“You,” he accused. “What are you doing here?”  
For a split second, Eco could think of nothing to reply. Then his brain caught up with his situation, “Good evening, Professor. I'd like a word with my father, if that's okay.” Professor Cesar fixed him with an inscrutable look that obliged Eco add, “In private.”  
“What a baby!” came a voice from inside the room, sounding suspiciously like the headmistress.  
After a very long and judgemental pause, during which Eco felt himself growing redder, Professor Cesar said, “Your father is not here. He's on patrol along the South corridor.”  
“Oh.” Eco felt a sudden surge of dread that wasn't completely irrational.  
“You shouldn't be walking alone at night, after what happened yesterday.” Go back to the dorms, and ask Professor Rafael to send a message to your father.”  
For a few seconds, Eco couldn’t think. It was even longer than that before Eco realized that Professor Cesar's suggestion actually sounded sensible. Walking around at night when he knew there was a murderer at large would be foolhardy.  
“I see,” he said. “Thank you very much.”  
As Eco turned and walked back down the corridor, he didn't hear the door close behind him. In fact, he was fairly sure Professor Cesar was still watching. It was only after he turned a corner that he heard the door creak and close.  
Eco hesitated then. Asking Professor Rafael for help would be the most sensible course of action. And yet, the uneasiness Eco felt before rebelled against that. His father patrolling the corridors alone with a murder at large didn't seem very sensible either. The rational thing to do would be to go back to the dorms and send his message. It wasn't as if Eco would be able to do anything himself if his father were assaulted by a murderer. And yet, Eco wasn't able to follow the rational course of action.  
Eco got to the the south corridor in under five minutes, despite not being familiar with the school yet. The corridor was empty, but Eco figured that didn't necessarily mean anything. If his father was indeed patrolling the corridor, he'd probably check the classrooms as well. Just because Eco couldn't see our hear him, it didn't mean anything bad had happened  
Eco's throat was dry as he walked down the corridor. He thought of calling out, but dismissed it as a bad idea.  
He heard the softest of sounds from a half opened door. It could perhaps be a creak of furniture moving, or perhaps a deep breath. Eco’s sense of dread increased. He marched to the door in silent slow steps. Because he was paying more attention to it now, he could hear more sounds from the half closed door. He swallowed in his dry mouth, but couldn’t quite fight that dread away. He supposed he was being silly, and in all probability there would be nothing in that room either.  
Eco pushed open the door. In his eagerness to be done with the search, he didn't even try to be silent. The door banged against the wall, and again against him.  
Eco's father was in the room.  
He wasn't the only one.  
Professor Valkyria was there as well. As soon as they heard the door, Eco's father stepped away from the table on which Professor Valkyria sat. Neither of them seemed dead, or hurt, much less to be patrolling.  
For a long moment Eco stared at their wide eyes, at their disheveled hair, at their crumpled clothes and their rapid breathing.  
Then Eco ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading the chapter, and sorry for the delay!  
> As I mentioned last week, I was moving back to campus, which would be pretty demanding on its own, but one of my bags was lost in the flight with most of my chargers in it, which made everything more difficult.  
> The good news is: I’ve recovered the bag, and my laptop is still working. I also managed to finish Professor Cesar’s sketch before posting this, so the link is at the end of the note.  
> In unrelated news, somewhere in the middle of this chapter I went back to check the dead guy’s name and I noticed I had completely botched the word ‘UNKNOWN’ when introducing the organization, which is quite bewildering (it was something like UWNKOWN). I assume I just glanced at that part without really reading the word, and still made up the words that formed the name based on the wrong letters. I probably will fix it as soon as I have some more free time, but for now we’ll probably be better off pretending it didn’t happen.  
> If you’re interested in the initial concept art for Professor Cesar, you can check it at: http://erikdowser.deviantart.com/art/Professor-Cesar-659409491?ga_submit_new=10%253A1485290393


	10. Dark Magic

Chapter X - Dark Magic

Mom, I have to talk to you right now.  
It's really important.  
Eco sent the message before he reread it. As he did, he wondered what was the point. His mom hadn’t replied to his many other similar messages. He scrolled to at least five of them with varying timestamps. He typed again,  
Dad is cheating on you.  
Eco's thumb hovered over the “Send” button. With a whimper, he turned his cellphone off without either sending or erasing the message. He stood by the dorm entry without any real wish to walk in. He had no intention of explaining to Barbara and Gabe why he hadn't gotten the explanation they were expecting. He held the cellphone to his heart and closed his eyes, without knowing what to do.  
“Hey,” came Gabe's voice, making him jump.  
Gabe stood just beside the door, with a comforter around his pajamas.  
“Sorry for startling you.” Gabe smiled a small smile that Eco couldn't really reciprocate. “Are you okay?”  
“Hm, sure.”  
For a few seconds, neither of them spoke, and Gabe held his comforter tighter around himself.  
“Barbara was looking for you.” Eco felt a fluttering sensation at the pit of his stomach. Of course she had been looking for him. And she'd want to know.”  
“If you don't feel like talking, I can distract her while you go to bed.”  
Eco looked up at Gabe without really knowing what he was looking for. Sure enough, Gabe looked earnest, so Eco nodded gratefully.  
Later, after sneaking past Barbara and Professor Rafael into the boys’ dormitory, Eco checked his smartphone one last time just to make sure there hadn't been any reply.

Eco didn't have much success sleeping, but he did dream three times that Barbara had sneaked into the dorms and poked him awake to demand answers. Each time he started awake, though, it was to a dark and silent dorm room, with no Barbara to be seen.  
In fact, at breakfast Eco couldn't find Barbara, and he noticed with relief that she was taking her meal at a different table, quite alone with other students at least an empty chair away. Gabe stayed with Eco, but didn't ask about the previous night. Instead, he asked about the classes he had missed. They used the few minutes they had before their first class to sketch Professor Cesar's homework. Barbara was one of the students that stayed in the main hall even after the meal was over, but still she did not join the two of them. Eco wasn’t as relieved anymore, and instead grew anxious. While he still didn't feel like sharing what had happened the previous night, he'd rather she was okay with that.  
As he checked another website on his cellphone for references on fire snakes (most of them were cartoony, but there were one or two that struck pretty close to what Eco remembered from Professor Cesar's class), Eco looked over at Barbara. She was completely motionless except for the munching of bubblegum. Eco hesitated, looked down at his sketch, then back at Barbara.  
“Our first class today is with Professor Cesar again. Have you finished your sketch yet, Barb?”  
Barbara froze in place for a second before resuming her munching. While she seemingly intended to ignore Eco, he kept on staring at her until she said, “I'm not attending.”  
Eco opened his mouth to argue, but that was her choice to make, he supposed. “You can hand me your sketch, then. I'll give it to Professor Cesar so that he can grade it, at least.”  
Barbara again interrupted her munching. This time she turned her head to Eco and fixed him with vacant eyes for a long time.  
“Fine,” she said finally.  
Barbara sprang up from her chair and took hold of a piece of paper and a pencil from the pile of shared materials Eco and Gabe had placed on the Fire Snake table. She quickly scribbled what could conceivably be interpreted as a middle finger, but more likely a much cruder organ.  
“Here,” she said, dumping the paper on Eco's lap. “He’ll recognize my art style.”  
Before either Eco or Gabe had recovered enough to react, Barbara left the room.

Professor Cesar awaited them on the grounds again. He sneered at Eco and Gabe as they approached together, “So, Barb the ‘Tard has decided not to join us today.”  
“She was feeling unwell, Professor,” Eco said, aware of how unconvincing his voice sounded. “But she asked me to hand in her homework.”  
“This should be good!” Professor Cesar ripped the paper out of Eco's hands and peered at it mockingly. His expression dissolved though, and the Professor let out a disappointed huff before placing the paper on his desk. Eco glanced at it. Though he had had under fifteen minutes to sketch a second drawing to turn in as Barbara's homework, he thought it deserved at least a passing grade.  
During the rest of the lecture, Professor Cesar told them about the feeding habits of each of the magical creatures on the table. He then demanded each of them brought a meal for their house animal in the next lecture. Gabe hadn't seemed bothered by Professor Cesar's snide remarks about his absence in the first class, and was excited as he proposed meal plans for the Anteater.  
Next was their first lecture with Professor Rafael. Again, Barbara was absent.  
Similarly to the classroom in which Eco’s dad and Professor Valkyria had their lectures, there was nothing special about Professor Rafael’s classroom. It seemed like one more of the repurposed factory spaces that had instead turned into a factory of students.  
“So, in my class you're supposed to learn all about offensive magic,” Professor Rafael said. As Professor Valkyria, he seemed to prefer a more relaxed posture of leaning over his table than that of a respectable professor. Indeed, his clothing made it seem more like he’d be going to the gym than yo a classroom, with a sleeveless V-cut T-shirt and shorts. “For self protection, of course, but also for many other uses. “  
Professor Rafael's assessment met a silence that showed very clearly others were also wondering what sort of uses he might be referring to. He did not elaborate.  
“You probably have heard of the Power Triad,” Professor Rafael continued. “Sometimes called the Unforgivable Curses. Their usage is banned by law in most countries, including here, but fortunately their study is still allowed.”  
Professor Rafael raised his wand and smiled at the five students in his class.  
“Who's up for practice?”  
The students peered at each other in uncomfortable silence until Professor Rafael shook his head and said, “Fine, you'll all practice, then. You two are a group,” he said, pointing at Eco and Gabe. “You two as well, and you sit this one out. Now, the important thing you must know about the Power Triad is that casting any one of them requires a very fine balance of magical power, correct technique, affinity with dark magic, will, among other variables. Uninitiated first years as you are, none of you will be able to perform any of the curses, but that's alright. For now I just want you to have a feel of what it would be like to try one, since you never had the chance before.”  
“Let's start with the Imperius Curse, my personal favorite. While it's widely known that you can resist the curse with enough willpower, the stronger in dark magic the caster is, the least true that becomes. Add a strong wand to the mixture and no amount of will can break through.”  
Eco peered at his own wand, remembering how unexpectedly it had behaved during Professor Valkyria’s first class.  
“Allow me to demonstrate,” Professor Rafael said, turning to the boy that had been left out. He flickered his wand, “Imperio!”  
There was a flash of light, then nothing. The student didn't move, which made Professor Rafael look quite silly with his wand suspended in the air.  
“A poorly performed Imperius Curse will be obvious to any onlooker,” said the student, to everyone’s dismay. “But it's a well performed one that really shine.”  
Professor Rafael pulled his wand up, and the student started. He looked around with a bewildered expression, then said, “The thing is, you can never know whether an Imperius Curse has truly been dispelled or not.”  
Eco felt a shiver running down his spine. He could almost imagine how it would be to have another conscience worming into your mind, overriding your thoughts, dictating your actions...  
Professor Rafael flickered his wand again, and again the student looked vacantly around himself.  
“Can you tell the difference?” Professor Rafael asked, smiling.  
Eco stared at the other student, who seemed to be growing uncomfortable with his peers’ scrutiny. Or was he? Eco couldn't tell.  
“Now, the Cruciate Curse,” Professor Rafael said. “I can't demonstrate this on a student, so…”  
Professor went on to demonstrate the next two curses, but Eco couldn't really focus. He still found himself turning his head to check the Imperiused student. He wasn't expecting to see anything specific. Yet he couldn't stop himself from expecting something.  
“Now pair up, everyone, as I instructed,” Professor Rafael said.  
Eco and Gabe did, and as Professor Rafael lend his own wand to Gabe so that the boys could stand ready in front of each other. Gabe looked as uneasy as Eco felt, with his shoulder slumping, thin compressed lips and beads of sweat forming around his temples.  
“You and you, start with Avada Kedavra,” Professor Rafael said, indicating Eco and someone from the other group.  
Eco looked down the length of his wand, pointed straight at Gabe's chest. He remembered the way he had managed the shield charm in a single try, despite Professor Valkyria’s expectations. His arm started shaking.  
“Professor, wait,” Eco said. “Something happened in Professor Valkyria’s class—“  
“I told you it's safe,” Professor Rafael said, his annoyance showing. “You don't really want to hurt your friend, do you?”  
Of course Eco didn't, that was the point! He looked at his trembling wand tip and tried to aim at a point just slightly to Gabe's left.  
“Avada Kedabra!” he mumbled, and as his hand shook, Eco realized he was pointing straight at Gabe's chest again.  
There was a green flash.  
Gabe flinched away from Eco.  
Then nothing happened.  
“See?” Professor Rafael said smugly. “You kids can't do anything, green as you are. Next, you and you, try the Cruciatus Curse.” He pointed to the children that had been targets the first time.  
While it was definitely unsettling to stare at the point of a wand tip knowing that an unforgivable curse was about to be thrown at you, it wasn't nearly as nerve wrecking as having to point his wand at a friend and doing it yourself.  
Gabe certainly seemed to agree, as he stared at Eco with eyes wide and shaking as violently as Eco had.  
“C-Crucio!” Gabe stammered. For this, there wasn't even a flash of light. Eco and Gabe started at each other for a tense moment before Gabe gave out a sheepish smile and lowered his wand.  
That's when Eco felt a small stab of pain on the back of his neck. He tilted it sideways, thinking maybe it had cramped due to the tension, but the pain spread down his spine, to his limbs and core, while also creeping upward into his head. Before he had realized it, Eco was on the ground, howling in pain. There were voices shouting around him, but Eco couldn't really make them out. He thought he would lose consciousness—he hoped he would lose consciousness—but the pain went on and on, making him writhe on the ground.  
When it stopped, Eco found himself lying face up on the floor with a foam of spittle overflowing from his mouth. The shadow of pain made him slow to realize that there were people around him. Gabe, with tears in his eyes, and Professor Rafael, whose skin had lost all color and whose mouth hung open in desperation.  
Eco tried to say something, to show them he was conscious, but only managed a meaningless croak.  
“I am so, so sorry!” Professor Rafael babbled. “I never thought—A first year… and he didn't look like he had any special affinity for dark magic….”  
Gabe's mouth also moved as if he was going to say something, but he too couldn't pronounce the words. Eco reached out a trembling arm in an attempt to reassure Gabe he wasn't at fault. Professor Rafael’s stupidness had gotten them in that situation, and while Gabe might not believe it, Eco could only be glad that it hadn’t been his spell that has worked when it shouldn't.

Eco was only half aware of the next few hours as he was taken to Professor Valkyria’s nurse room. He was placed on a bed next to the other student Gabe had hurt. There were a lot of comings and goings. Other than Professor Valkyria herself, he was aware of Gabe, Professor Rafael, Cesar, and his father. When Eco came to, though, the person he found sitting beside his bed was Barbara.  
He glanced up at her, who seemed to have been snoozing, but when he tried to move his head, her eyes snapped open at him.  
They started at each other for a silent moment.  
“Hi,” he tried.  
Rather than answering, she scowled.  
Eco wasn't sure how to respond to this. “How long was I out?”  
This time, not only did Barbara ignore him, she actually turned her head away and got up as if to leave. Having just woken up himself, Eco’s temper didn't enjoy having that as his first interaction of the day.  
“So you're still mad because I didn't find any information for you on the murder case? Didn't it occur to you that something had happened while I was trying to talk to my father?”  
Barbara flinched on her way to the door. She turned slowly back to Eco, her scowl fiercer than ever.  
“Don't you remember there's a murderer in the school?” she asked very softly. “You left alone to look for your father, and when you didn't come back for twenty minutes, I started to worry. I talked to fluffy but he insisted you weren't back yet. After an hour, I decided to look for you. I asked you to go, so I knew that if anything happened to you, it would be my fault. I scoured the entire school for hours trying to find you. I was so desperate that around 3 am I actually went to the Professor's room and begged Cesar for help. In less than five minutes he had Rafael confirm that you were sleeping safely in your room, so Cesar decided I had been trying to prank him.” She drew up straight. “So yes, I did think something had happened to you. And yes, I'm really, really mad.”  
Eco could do nothing but gape at her for a long moment.  
“I didn't—I” Eco stammered, prompting Barbara to cross her arms. “I'm sorry,” he sighed at last. “I thought you'd nag me about the murder case, and I really didn't want to talk about it. “  
Barbara's shoulders relaxed a bit.  
“You're right, I’d nag. But still you should have said something.”  
There was a moment of silence before Barbara opened her mouth to speak again.  
“You—” Came an angry, muffled voice just outside the room. “How dare hurt my son, how…” Eco recognized his father’s voice. His Portuguese got more and more jumbled as he grew angrier.  
Barbara shot Eco a glance as his father went on with his shouts, overriding what sounded like muffled apologies uttered by Professor Rafael. Eco's dad grew less and less intelligible as he went on, to the point when he seemed to be screeching senseless syllables. Eventually, the noise subsided, and for a ew seconds there was silence. Then the door slowly creaked open, and Eco's father slipped inside, his face still red from anger.  
Eco hastily looked away from him, and his father halted by the door.  
“Hello, Barbara, isn't it?” his father asked, his accent a bit less pronounced. “How are you?” she must either have nodded, or ignored him. “Would you mind leaving us for a moment?”  
Barbara did not reply, but she glided out of the room. Eco wished she hadn’t. He remained still on his bed, his face turned on the pillow so that he wouldn't have to face his father.  
“Eco,” his dad called softly, his inflection changing as he switched languages. “How are you feeling? “  
Eco supposed his father meant to ask about the Cruciatus Curse, but nothing could be farther from Eco's mind at that moment. He grunted a senseless reply.  
His father didn't react for almost a minute. Then he began again, his voice even softer. “I've been meaning to talk to you…”  
“I don't want to talk!” Eco spat back, surprised by the violence in his tone. His plan had been to ignore his dad until he went away.  
“I know you don't. Have you heard back from your mother? I assume you messaged her after… you know.”  
Eco didn't answer, and his hand darted to his cell phone. One glance was enough to tell him that there had been no reply yet.  
“Neither have I, ever since we moved here,” his father said.  
“That's no excuse for you to—”  
“That's not up for you to decide,” his father cut in, his voice fiercer. He then took a deep breath and slumped his shoulders. “That's not the whole story, though. I probably should have told you this as soon as you told me she wasn't returning your messages…”  
Eco tried to swallow, but the feeling of dread that had been plaguing him from the very first week with no news from his mother took over him.  
“We have split up.” Eco's dad tried to keep his tone calm, but the next words flowed out of his mouth. “We had been fighting so much, and one day she just left. I should have told you, but—”  
“No kidding, you should have told me!” Eco shouted back, his fear exploding from his chest. “I thought she had died!”  
Eco's father took a step back and crossed his arms. “I didn't think she'd stop talking to you as well. I thought…” he uncrossed his arms. “It doesn't matter what I thought.” He stepped closer again. “I am so sorry Eco, but there's nothing I can do about your mother. And about Valkyria, well…”  
“It’s none of my business. “ Eco completed. His rage felt strangely subdued, and he didn't really care when his father shrugged his agreement.  
A long minute of silence followed during which they didn’t look at each other. Eco had noticed his mom and dad had been fighting more than usual in the months prior to their departure to Brazil, but he'd never have suspected that if they broke up, she'd refuse to talk to Eco as well.  
“Well, now that that's settled,” Eco's father said with a sigh. “I have to tell you that you shouldn't wander off on your own at night. It's not safe. Why were you—”  
“That's right!” Eco said, excited again. “We need to access the wizard net!”  
Eco's dad frowned, tilting his head to one side. “We? We who?”  
“Barbara, Gabe and I.” Eco almost made up a lie about how the other two were just curious to see the wizard net, but instead confessed, “We want to check on that guy that was murdered! His name was…”  
“Alberto whatever,” Eco's dad replied, his frown deepening. “He was a member of an arab community here in Brazil, working as a private investigator as well as an auror. As it turned out, Valkyria had the same idea as you did.”  
Part of an arab community? And a private investigator on the side? What did that have to do with anything? Before Eco could ask, though, his father went on, “Have you heard about the MABRA movement?”  
Though the name sounded vaguely familiar to Eco, he couldn’t quite place it. He shook his head.  
“Well, that's the first thing you should ask your friends, then. I'd add you on the wizard net, but I'm not an admin in the Brazil branch, and I have reason to believe all your searches will be monitored. You'd better not get too hopeful.”  
Eco wasn't sure how he'd explain that to Barbara, but he didn't feel like arguing. For once, it felt good to be with his dad again. Sure, Eco still hated that hellhole of a country, but he doubted he'd like home better knowing that his mother would be out there, choosing to ignore him. At least here he could still pretend she hadn't gotten any of his messages.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading another chapter of All Beyond the Sidelines!  
> We’re getting surprisingly close to the end of the first draft I had written, which makes me believe things will start happening very quickly very soon. I just hope it doesn’t go too quickly to follow. For what it’s worth, the next chapter seems very short, so I might add some backstory which I hadn’t really gotten around to writing in the first draft.  
> I had hoped I’d be able to quickly fix Gabe’s sketch before posting this chapter, but I’m now leaning towards redoing the whole thing from scratch (I had already tried to fix it once, because the eyes looked too big, and now I can’t help but feel like the entire picture is out of proportion).  
> Thanks for reading!


	11. The Tower that Wasn't

Chapter XI – the Tower that Wasn't

Eco’s night in the infirmary involved prolonged awkward silence trying not to look at Professor Valkyria. By next morning, he hurried to the dorms to get changed before breakfast. He met Gabe on the way out, whose face turned red as he tried to scuttle away. Eco took his shoulder and held Gabe in place until the other boy looked at him.  
“Gabe, it wasn't your fault. That stupid Professor forced you to do it.”  
“Well, I disagree with the terms, but I have to agree I messed up.” Eco turned to find Professor Rafael standing right behind him, looking ill-rested with red eyes and a pale complexion.   
“Professor, I—”  
“You forgot I'm responsible for looking after the dorms? Fine, I'll pretend I didn't hear you if you pretend I didn't hurt you too bad. How are you feeling?”  
“Good as new,” he said, more for Gabe’s sake than for the professor. “It wasn't really all that bad.”  
“That's the spirit,” Professor Rafael said with a nod before marching on. “Gabriel, we’ll be expecting you in my classroom after dinner.”  
Eco frowned at Gabe, “You didn’t get a detention for this, did you? “  
“No…” It was still a moment longer before Gabe managed to meet Eco's gaze. “Professor Cesar came to me last night after the accident. He promoted me to the Golden Lion Tamarin House. He also said I'd be taking private lessons from Professor Rafael every night.”  
To Eco, that sounded very fishy. Especially since Professor Rafael's first lesson had been Unforgivable Curses. “What sort of private lessons?”  
Gabe shrugged. “They didn't say. But Professor Cesar mentioned I might be able to use my wand again after some practice. I guess they're just worried I might hurt someone else again, if I can’t control my magic properly.”  
“Maybe…” Eco said, but he didn't think so. “What did Barbara say?”  
“I haven't told her yet. We never really hang out when you're not around, and I think she might be mad that I cursed you.”  
“Nonsense,” Eco said, though he had no way of knowing how she really felt.  
Either way, Eco didn't think she'd like the idea of anyone taking private dark magic lessons. Eco himself didn't think it likely that the professors would have “promoted” Gabe to Golden Lion Tamarin House if they merely intended to suppress his skill.  
Though Gabe shot a longing look to Golden Lion Tamarin House’s table on the dining hall (it was occupied only by two upperclassmen), he sat with Eco at the Fire Snake House. Barbara arrived soon, sitting down without looking at or acknowledging the other two.  
“Good. Now that you're both here…” Eco briefed them on what his dad had told him about the wizard net being watched, and on Professor Valkyria’s research. “Do either of you know what MABRA is?”  
Barbara jerked to what Eco had come to think of as her hyper alert mode. Even Gabe widened his eyes.  
“You've never heard of MABRA?” Barbara asked, pronouncing every word clearly. Eco shook his head, which did nothing to dispel her look of disbelief.  
“I told you a bit about them,” Gabe said. “Though I guess I probably forgot to mention their name. They're a sort of society—”  
“More like a terrorist organization,” Barbara interrupted. “It stands for Magic Association of Brazil. They're nationalists zealots.”  
“They've been linked to a few crimes,” Gabe agreed. “Most of them of xenophobic nature, but nothing was ever proven decisively.”  
“Cesar is a member,” Barbara accused.  
Gabe slumped his shoulders. “No one can say that for sure…”  
“Oh, please!” Barbara dismissed Gabe with a hand. “He’s always making speeches about national superiority. He is a member.” Barbara focused back on Eco. “Did your father say how Mabra might be implicated on the crime? Is it just because he worked for the UNKNOWN?”  
Eco hesitated. “Would the fact that he's from an arab community be enough for them to murder him?”  
Barbara stood in silence for a second.  
“No,” she decided. “There are many people in Saciscola of arab descent, Professor Rafael included. There’d have to be something more. Maybe because he was working for a global organization rather than for the country?” Her eyes darted around the room, lingering at Gabe, “MABRA is particularly fond of native descendent, so fluffy might be able to find something from them…”  
“I wish you’d stop calling me that…” Gabe mumbled. Barb either didn’t hear or didn’t care.  
“If Cesar is now targeting people just because they aren't from Brazil,” Her eyes lingered on Eco this time. “We better make sure neither you nor your father remain alone for long.”

“I've been thinking…” Gabe begun after a tense breakfast. He looked deeply troubled, perhaps still because “What if those classes Professor Cesar is giving me—”  
“Professor Cesar is doing what?” Barbara snapped, her bubblegum almost flying away.  
Gabe mumbled a response, and although Eco couldn't make out a single word, Barbara seemed to have gotten the gist of it.  
“They offered to teach you dark magic?” she snarled. “And you said yes?! “  
“They didn't really give me the option of refusing,” Gabe replied, now sounding mildly resentful.  
Barbara harrumphed in a way that sent her purple hair flying, then stormed away for whatever reason. Eco could only hope she was planning on attending their next class, though that seemed unlikely. Both boys watched her disappear into the corridor.  
“What were you wondering?” Eco asked after she was gone.  
“What?” Gabe seemed surprised by the question. “I forgot…”  
There followed a brief period of silence during which Eco wondered if they should start moving to their next class as well. To break the silence, he asked, “You know, Gabe, if you don’t mind me asking, did you ever use dark magic before coming to school?”  
Gabe was clearly uncomfortable with the question, looking away and crossing his arms so that his hands held his elbows.  
“Well, I didn’t have a wand, so I couldn’t really do any magic per say… But I know what you mean.” He uncrossed his arms, scratching his head. “I guess I must have? It’s hard to tell. I never killed anyone, or anything! But… There were always weird stuff happening, and it was practically impossible to know who had done what, with that much magical children living together. Still… I remember one Halloween when we were supposed to make up scary stories to tell the other children in class. The teacher chose me to tell mine and, well… It wasn’t very good. Many of the children were laughing hysterically, and I felt pretty bad about it…”  
Gabe shrugged.  
“For the next three weeks, everyone in the orphanage had recurring nightmares about my story. People would wake up screaming, would be too afraid to use the bathroom alone, and I remember at least three kids who started refusing to sleep altogether.” He shrugged again. “Everyone knew I had done something. At first, a lot of the other kids thought it was cool, at least during daylight when they could barely remember their nightmares. But in the darkness, when all you could hear were screams and desperate weeping, it wasn’t cool at all.”  
Eco spent a few seconds trying to imagine how it would be like to be unable to sleep several days in a row due to nightmares. He shivered, and decided it would be best to change the subject, “You mentioned that this MABRA organization prizes people from native descent. Haven’t they approached you before? Or haven’t you been curious to maybe join?”  
Gabe giggled to that, though it sounded like a sad giggle.  
“Look at me, Eco,” he said, spreading his arms to indicate the tribal design in his T-shirt, the colorful feathers hanging from his ear, and the crafted mantle around his waist. Eco half expected to see a MABRA tag somewhere, but failing to do so, he couldn’t see what Gabe was trying to show him. He shrugged up at Gabe.  
“I’ve been brought up in an orphanage by city people. All I’ve known of native people’s culture is from television or comics. I became interested in dressing like what I thought a native looks like, but I’ve never even spoken with someone with native culture. I’m no more native than you, even if I may look like it.”  
Eco stared at Gabe for a few moments. He could see where he was coming from, and he supposed it was true. He didn’t like how sad Gabe sounded, though.  
“You can learn more about their culture if you really want to,” he suggested. “I bet we could find some native people if we looked online.”  
“I’d like that,” Gabe said sheepishly, without looking at Eco.

Before it was time for Cesar’s class, it started pouring rain outside. Though they could hear it only faintly from the main hall, the rain became apparent by the several leaks throughout the hall. A very annoyed Professor Cesar announced that as no preparations had yet been made to protect the Fire Snake, their lesson that day would have to be taught in his private classroom.  
Eco watched the rain through the windows as he matched there. It was a heavy and misty kind of rain, obscuring the vision and making deep pools around the castle building. Professor Cesar’s classroom faced the forest, with a large set of windows which didn’t match the industrial look of the rest of the building. Eco sat in one of the desks closer to the front of the room and watched the rain outside while waiting for the Professor to arrive.  
The forest looked even darker as it was pelted by rain, the leaves coated in a layer of bouncing water. There was also a tall dark tower Eco had never noticed before standing in the middle of the forest. The water gushed out from the railings around it's pointed roof, and back down to the forest.  
“So you're here!” Professor Cesar's annoyed voice called from the entrance of the room. All five students glanced back, except for Barbara (who Eco was surprised to see had decided to attend).  
Professor Cesar waved his wand, and all windows turned black, obscuring both view and noise. “I was delayed by some official business, but no matter.” With another wave of his wand, the four familiar cages showed up on top of the front table, along with a stack of papers. “Before we begin, though, I'll hand back your homework…”  
“That's a first,” Barbara muttered under her breath. Eco tilted his head towards her, hoping Professor Cesar couldn't tell they were speaking. “The professors rarely ever give back homework. They usually just assign random grades.”  
Professor Cesar called each of them by name in alphabetical order. The first one was, “Barbara Sati.”  
Barbara boldly strode to the front of the classroom under Professor Cesar's furious gaze. As she approached, he seethed, “It seems like you've decided to make an effort this third time…”  
Barbara took the paper he offered her, and for a moment her eyes bulged when they fell on the sketch Eco had made for her. For a long motionless second Eco feared she'd throw it back on the professor's face, but at last she chewed her gum, took the paper and took a seat—on the opposite side of the room from Eco and Gabe.  
After taking back his own homework with a passable grade of 8/10, Eco peered at Gabe's drawing to see it had gotten 10/10. He tried not to think it was due to favoritism. He supposed that considering Professor Cesar hated him, it could have been much worse, but he dismissed the thought.  
“I was very lenient with your grading, as this was your first assignment, but you should expect no such leniency in the future. Most of you did passable jobs,” he glared at Eco as if he expected an objection. “But others were frankly abysmal. “ he looked at the bandaged student, freshly released from the hospital wing. Gabe shot him a sorrowful look. “Those who got a grade lower than seven are required to remain longer today, and draw from reference.” Eco glanced at Barbara, but he couldn't see what her grade had been. “For today’s lesson, we’ll be studying eating habits, which will also be our first look at Herbology.”  
As much as Eco disliked Professor Cesar, it was hard not to be captivated by his class. Even the non magical creatures managed to be fascinating, with their furry looks and quirky manners. By the end of the lesson, with a new assignment, it had stopped raining. Professor Cesar insisted that they go outside to breathe in the forest’s fresh air.  
As they went, Eco tried to get closer to Barbara, but she was clearly avoiding him. He turned to Gabe for his opinion, and only then noticed that Gabe too had lagged behind, closer to the bandaged boy. Alone, Eco followed Professor Cesar and tried to pretend he enjoyed the fresh muddy air, ignoring that same mud soaking into his shoes and socks. He watched the damp forest silently, wondering how long Professor Cesar would require them to stay there.  
Eco frowned without realizing why.  
His eyes surveyed the forest from one end to the other, lingering for just an instant on the trees before moving on. The forest looked completely normal. Why was he feeling so…  
No. The problem wasn't what he was seeing, but what he didn’t see. That strange dark tower Eco had glimpsed before had vanished.  
Could it be the angle he was standing at? No, even closer to Saciscola he hadn’t been able to see any tower. Perhaps he was on the wrong side of the building? But the forest didn’t stretch so far, and he could see most of it from there.  
“You are dismissed,” Professor Cesar said. “Raining or no, I'll expect you at this location for our next lecture.”  
Eco remained stunned for yet a moment before turning to find Gabe and Barb. Gabe had been deterred by a patch of mud, but Barbara was fairly close by and shot Eco a nasty look.  
“I had never noticed the tower before,” he said.  
Barbara blinked at him for a few seconds before responding, “What? “  
“The tower.” Eco motioned towards the forest, even though he could no longer see the building.   
“That's a forest. A tower is what you call a single tall building.”  
Eco waved a hand at her, “I know what a tower is! You can't see it from here, but when we were higher up in the building... Come on, I'll show you.”  
“What's up?” Gabe asked approaching.  
Eco motioned them to follow as he answered, “You know that tower in the forest?”  
“A tower in the forest?”  
Eco grumbled a response and quickened his place. They hadn't managed to cross the entry hall before Barbara stopped. Eco clicked his tongue in exasperation as he turned to her. “What?”  
“I'm mad at you.”  
“I noticed. What is it this time?”  
“What the hell is this?” Barbara shoved her homework in Eco's face. It has gotten a 9.  
“It was my attempt to make sure you wouldn't fail your fourth year on your very first class!”  
“That's none of your business!”  
“And yet I seem to be doing a way better job than you are!”  
“The point is doing what I want to do, rather than doing a good job of whatever someone tells you to!”  
“Fine, I'll make sure not to help you next time, then!”  
“Fine, that's just what I said!”  
Eco and Barbara stared off at each other for a few more seconds before she stormed off. Eco kept watching her retreat for a few more seconds, feeling something stuck around his throat. It was a mixture of anger, hurt and regret, but mostly just anger. He harrumphed as he turned away from Barbara and without a word went back to guiding Gabe to the corridor by Cesar's classroom.  
Eco brought Gabe to one of the windows and pointed to the forest. “There.”  
But even before Gabe had time to scan the horizon, Eco could see there was no tower in the forest.  
He felt his heart thumping faster with a desperation that fed on his anger. “It was here! Maybe on the other side of the corridor…”  
That made no sense. Both sides of the corridor and Cesar's room all faced the same direction. Still Eco matched all along the corridor, peering through every window. Gave didn't follow him, and he didn't need to, as eco found nothing.  
“It was there!” Eco insisted. “A tall black tower looming over the forest!”  
Gabe didn't say anything, and Eco paced back and forth in the corridor, scanning the windows. Still he found no tower under the overcast sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading another chapter of All Beyond the Sidelines!  
> I mentioned this chapter was really short on my original draft, so I merged it with parts of the following chapter and extended the conversation between Eco and Gabe near the beginning. I also changed the order of a few things, so hopefully it flows better now.  
> Just as a reminder, I wrote this sometime around the middle of last year, so any similarities to real life politics at the moment is coincidental, much to my dismay. I don’t think there’s anything offensive in the text, but just as well, but either way it wasn’t my intention to make anyone uncomfortable.  
> I mentioned last time that we seemed to be getting close to the ending, but judging by the page count in my Word document, we might still have as much as 5 weeks, even if I don’t add anything (and the ending section will probably need a lot of structural changes).  
> Again, I wasn’t able to work on anything new for this week’s art piece, but rather than keep on with vague promises of eventually finishing it, I’ll post Gabe’s sketch as it is and update it later when I have the time. This is the very last sketch I have that I can share before the end of the story (because of spoilers). I’d like to do a sketch for Professor Rafael as well, but given how I have been unable to do anything in recent weeks, I shouldn’t promise anything.  
> Thanks for reading!  
> Gabe (WIP): http://erikdowser.deviantart.com/art/Gabe-WIP-661500347?ga_submit_new=10%3A1486225409


	12. Revolt

Chapter XII - Revolt

Their next class was with Professor Valkyria. As soon as they got there, Eco peeked at the other students through the corner of his eyes. Barbara wasn’t there, and she didn’t show up after the allotted fifteen for lateness. Either because he was still angry at her, or because he was uncomfortable around Professor Valkyria, Eco performed horribly. Much to everyone’s dismay after he had so effortlessly managed the shield charm, by the time class was over, Eco was the only student that hadn’t been able to accomplish the very simple levitation spell which was supposed to be their first real lesson.  
“It always takes up some more practice for some,” Professor Valkyria told Eco with a tone she certainly must have found reassuring, after most other students had left. “See if you can’t ask your father for some help before next class, or practice with your friend.” she indicated Gabe with her head, who had gotten it right even with his borrowed wand.  
His failure only added to Eco’s annoyance, so he slept badly that night.  
Their first class next day was History of Magic, which Eco noticed would be taught by his dad as well. He braced for another cringeworthy embarrassment. Eco quickly averted his eyes as soon as he noticed Barbara sitting inside the class, alone in the last row. Eco's dad stood with his back to the class, writing on the chalkboard. He waited for perhaps another ten minutes before he coughed embarrassedly and looked at them.  
“Well… it seems like it's only us, today.” His carefully pronounced words made it seem like he had spent a good deal of time practicing. “I had planned to start at the magical colonization war...”  
Eco heard the chewing noises from Barbara’s gum slow down to a crawl, and he heard a noise that was probably her head thumping on the table.  
“Are those the friends you told me about, Eco?” his dad asked in English.  
Eco nodded, prompting his father to peer at the other two.  
“So have you talked about MABRA yet?” he asked in Portuguese, and Barbara jolted upright again.  
“Yes,” Eco replied. “It seems like it's quite well known here.”  
“As it should be, with Professor Cesar as the leader,” Eco’s dad said. “Or so all the sources around the wizard net claim.” Eco’s dad clapped his hands together to get rid of the chalk, raising a cloud of white dust. “I've been researching, and it seems like MABRA has existed for many decades. It was only recently that it started picking up strength, though, when Cesar assumed control.”  
“And turned it into a criminal organization,” Barbara said through the corner of her mouth.  
“What was that?” Eco's father asked, stretching his neck to hear.  
Barbara grumbled inaudibly and sat back on her desk with her arms crossed. Eco’s dad continued watching her for a moment before sitting as well. “You know, if you have something to say, there's no harm in just saying it.”  
“Wrong,” Barbara hissed.  
Eco's father didn't reply, but he inquisitively tilted his head sideways. As Barbara did not continue, he had to ask, “How do you mean? “  
Again, Barbara was quivering. For a few seconds Eco thought she wouldn't reply, but then she burst out, “Well, it doesn't change anything, does it?! No matter how much you dislike them, you'll never have the power to change anything, and they'll just push you down until you can't get up again! “  
While both Eco and Gabe were surprised by that outburst, Eco's father just assumed a thoughtful frown. “You can always make yourself stronger before acting again, no?”  
“That's easy for you to say!”  
“And easier yet to prove. Didn't we just say MABRA wasn't always as powerful as they are now? They had to climb their way up.”  
“Are you saying I should use them as an example?”  
“Of course not. Even though they did get power, they weren't smart about it. They were all over the news when the original Castelobruxo was burned…”  
The original? Eco hadn’t heard about that, and his dad must have noticed his confusion, as he focused on his son.  
“Didn’t I tell you? Saciscola used to operate under a different name, Castelobruxo, when it was originally built as the first school of magic in South America. It wasn’t very old. about a hundred years, and it wasn’t any more prestigious either. Then the entire structure was destroyed in an arson a few years ago, and they decided to relocate the school while the original site was rebuilt. It is also then that the school was rebranded as Saciscola. The whole thing was fishy, and MABRA claimed credit for the arson, which made it a bit obvious Cesar was behind it, since he had been lobbying for the relocation of the school,”  
Eco glanced around at Gabe and Barb. While they remained focused on Eco’s dad, it didn’t seem like that story was news to either of them.  
“MABRA made many enemies such as you,” Eco’s dad continued, facing Barb. “Don’t you think you could do better?”  
Barbara didn't respond to this, fixing Eco's dad with a steady glare.  
Eco thought it was a good opportunity to say, “There are people who can help you, but you'll never get anywhere if your defiance amounts to ditching classes and insulting the professors.”  
Barbara’s face tightened when she heard his voice, but she didn’t look at him or even respond. Eco could see she was in hyper mode, though, pondering.  
“Well, what you do is up to you,” Eco's dad concluded. “But I must go back to class. Before we begin, though, it would be useful if all of you were comfortable with the Muggle web. It'll be useful for research, and for handing in homework. Help me out, will you, Eco? “  
Eco and his father spent the rest of the class familiarizing Gabe and Barbara with the muggle web, going so far as registering then in all major social networks. By the end of the day they already had a private group to ostensibly discuss homework, but Eco’s dad made it pretty clear that he intended to use it to exchange info on Cesar and MABRA.

During the next few days, Eco noticed Barbara lurking in the edges of his vision. At first he thought she was following him and Gabe, which was a flattering thought, but the more he noticed her, he couldn't help but wonder who was following whom. Their eyes did meet a few times, never on purpose, and at those moments Eco felt like he should go to her and say something. Barbara certainly looked like she wanted to say something herself, but they always ended up looking away from each other silently.  
That happened often, as Barbara now attended every lectur. She still looked pretty disperse, but she must have been getting some of it in, as she now also turned in all her assignments, and judging from Cesar's angry glares and Professor Valeria's surprised groans, Barbara must have been doing a decent job of those. Eco often found himself trying to justify that handing in a lesson for her had been the right call, but doing so without letting her know might not have been the best way to go on about it. He could tell her that, he supposed. It wouldn't be like admitting had been wrong, since he hadn't been, but yet…  
Eco had been finishing a dark arts assignment alone in the library. There were a few other kids goofing off in other tables, but Eco had learned to ignore them as white noise. Gabe wasn't around, as that was the time of his private lessons with Professor Cesar and Rafael. Eco was browsing through a book of curses while absent monthly thinking he ought to set up a Skype call with his friends back home during the weekend.  
He was surprised by the movement of someone sitting on a chair next to him, and further thrown off balance when he realized it was Barbara.  
“Eh-” he mouthed, regretting the silly noise soon as it was out.  
“Hi,” she said. She wasn't looking at him, though, instead looking down at the table. In fact, it seemed she wasn't on guard either. Seeing her that way was strangely reassuring, but also embarrassing at the same time, as if Eco expected her to say something dreadful. “I have to apologize to you.”  
Eco automatic reflex was to tell her she didn't have to, but he bit it back. Not only would Barbara not appreciate the insincerity, Eco actually had been quite hurt by their feud. Still he said, “I shouldn't have handed in the homework without asking you either.”  
Barbara shrugged. “You should ask me in the future if you ever do so it again, but at that time I’d probably be mad at the very idea and wasted another year here. I was in the wrong.”  
Eco decided agreeing wouldn't be very polite, so he remained silent. Once her apology was done, though, Barbara didn't seem to have anything to say. Before the silence continued for too long, then, Eco said, “I was just doing the dark arts homework while Gabe is out.”  
“Oh, I still have to do that. I spaced out in the last lecture trying to come up with a reverse spell for the concussion hex he showed.”  
“A what?” Eco asked, relieved that she had found something to talk about.  
“A reverse spell.” She pulled out her wand. “It’s one of the basic techniques for developing new spells. You just reverse the wand movement and the enchantment, then hope for the best. It doesn’t work for most spells, but some of them do. If you levitate that book I can show you.”  
Eco glanced at the book, and tried to sound nonchalant as he said, “I haven’t managed the levitation charm yet.”  
“Oh.” Barbara hesitated. “Anyway, I guess I'll finish the homework after Valkyria’s class.”  
Valkyria’s class ended fifteen minutes before Professor Rafael’s. Barbara probably knew that without eco spelling it out, though.  
He was about to say something else when his cell phone vibrated on the table. Eco automatically reached out it to find it was a message from his father in their group.  
Come to the entry hall. Stay hidden.

Eco and Barbara sneaked to the entry hall as stealthily as they could, though it wasn't like anyone was watching them. The corridors were all empty at that hour, and the two of them could hear nothing as they crept silently in the darkness. It was only when they reached the stairway next to the main hall that they heard hushed whispers that were barely discernable.  
“I'm afraid that won't be possible. If you still refuse, I'm afraid that we’ll have to take you into custody.”  
“I'm afraid that's quite beyond your abilities,” Professor Cesar replied.  
During the pause that followed, Eco and Barb sneaked up closer, until they had an open view of the entry hall.  
“Perhaps,” said a tall, heavy built man. “But by this time tomorrow an even bigger squad of aurors will be here, and it's only a matter of time before the UNKNOWN police gets involved.”  
The heavy man was dressed in a dark blue suit that bore an insignia that Eco did not recognize. There were two other men beside him wearing similar uniforms. The entry hall was badly lit, so they couldn't see more details of the aurors. Still, Eco could recognize the other people in the room as all the professors. Cesar stood directly across from the heavy auror with Rafael beside him. His dad and Professor Valkyria were off to one side, and Gabe too stood close to them.  
“This is pointless,” Professor Rafael said. “The man was clearly not killed by magic!”  
“Then why don't you just hand over your wand for examination and get this over with?” Professor Valkyria suggested in a sticky sweet tone.  
“Why isn't her wand being examined?” Rafael demanded.  
“As you pointed out, the man was bludgeoned to death. Obviously no woman has the strength to beat a man to death.”  
Eco couldn't tell if the heavy auror was serious or not, but as the sentence was followed by nothing but Barbara bristling, he had to assume the man hadn't even realized he was being ridiculous, considering Professor Valkyria was more heavily built than Cesar at least.  
“If you agree that a wand wasn’t the murder weapon, then what is the point in examining ours?”  
“We cannot rule out any possibility yet. As I said, it's a matter of time before the international police gets involved. This time grows if we have results to show. Come on, Cesar, we've been through this before.”  
“Too many times for my liking. How many times will I have to prove myself innocent while new accusations keep being fabricated?”  
Eco frowned at Barbara. “What does he mean?”  
She shook her head, her eyes fixed on the scene below.  
“It's not our fault dead bodies keep piling up around you.”  
“It's precisely your fault,” Professor Rafael said.”You’re aurors. You should keep murders from happening.”  
“And we will, if you let us do our jobs.”  
The heavy man extended a hand towards Cesar.  
There was a long moment without movement, with everyone focused on Cesar. Finally, the professor shoved one arm towards the heavy auror’s extended hand.  
“Much obliged… Prior Incantato!”  
There was a golden glow that briefly illuminated the faces of all those present. The heavy auror was a middle aged man with leathery skin and prominent jowls. He was the oldest in his group, even though he was far from the most sharply dressed.  
Eco couldn't quite discern what the golden light was forming into, but the aurors gasped and smiled.  
“Oh, Cesar! It looks as if you've been using dark magic…”  
“Indeed I have.”  
“Care to explain?”  
“This year we have received an exceptionally gifted student.” Cesar motioned to Gabe. “You arrived just as I and Professor Rafael gave him private lessons.”  
The heavy auror gave Gabe a dismissive glance before turning back to Cesar.  
“How convenient, and during our last visit you had been using dark magic to trim the garden, is that correct?”  
“Indeed, as you yourself observed by the twigs and leaves.”  
“Far be it from me to tell you how to do your job,” Professor Valkyria said sweetly. “but aren't you concerned that he's been teaching dark magic to a first year student?”  
“Need I remind you, Valkyria,” Professor Cesar said coldly. “that the study dark magic is completely legal as long as there is no intention of using it against other people?”  
“Oh, yes. I forgot you teach dark magic as a gardening tool,” Professor Valkyria said, full of sarcasm.  
“Now, miss.” the heavy auror cut in. “Unfortunately, Cesar is within his rights a teacher to pass those skills onto students.” Cesar smirked. “However,” the smile dissipated. “under such suspicious circumstances, I'm afraid I can't leave without a deeper investigation. My squad will have to remain at Saciscola for now.” Cesar began to protest. “And will have to retain your wands for proper investigation, until we can go as far back as the day of the murder.”  
“That’s not acceptable!” Rafael said.  
“It's not up for discussion, either,” the heavy auror replied.  
“Joaquim,” Cesar called. “We both know this investigation is pointless. How would you know how far back the day of the murder is?”  
The heavy auror, Joaquim, shrugged. “I cannot disclose that information.”  
“Because it can't be done,” Rafael muttered.  
“What is going on, here?”Eco jumped, and just beside him Barbara jerked like a startled cat. The voice of the Headmistress had come from a door right next to them. She glided into the hall, banging her horrible bird-head cane on the floor with every step. While she seemed too distracted by the golden lights to pay any attention to Eco and Barb, the boy had the eerie impression that eyes of the bird carved on the cane were staring straight at him.  
“Mistress Lima,” Joaquim greeted with a bow. “A pleasure.”  
“Ah, Joca!” the Headmistress called in a pleased purr. “You aren't bothering poor Zizi again, are you?”  
Eco didn't miss the nasty look on Professor Cesar's face, as if he'd swallowed a lemon. Eco tried to exchange a smirk with Barbara, but she was still too focused on the Headmistress.  
“I'm afraid I have no choice,” the auror replied. “He seems to be at the center of yet another murder.”  
“Nonsense! Zizi spent all afternoon with the first years. We've been through this, Joca!”  
“Unfortunately, the Arabian Ministry isn't satisfied with our investigation. As I was just telling Zizi here,” he parted Professor Cesar on the shoulder. “we’ll have to stay in the castle for a few days, and investigate their wands.”  
“Oh, my! We’ll be delighted to have you here, won't we, Zizi?” Professor Cesar ignored her. “Unfortunately, taking the wands off two of my professors is impossible, and I'll hear no more about it.”  
“Sadly, Mistress, the Arabian aurors—“  
“I said,” the headmistress said in a sickly sweet voice. “I'll hear no more about it. If the Arabian aurors have a problem, then they'll have to come here to sort it out, won't they, Joca?”  
Joaquim sighed very heavily, “Well, Headmistress. In that case, I believe they will be here very soon.”

Eco and Barbara went back to the dorm room area, waiting for Gabe to show up. He did so after half an hour more, escorted by Eco's father and Professor Valkyria.  
“Did you-”Eco's father asked, and both he and Barb nodded.  
“You probably recognized mister Joaquim, didn't you, miss Sati?”  
Barbara nodded, prompting Eco to ask, “Who is he?”  
“Joaquim Assunção. He's the head auror in the country.”  
Eco widened his eyes, but it was Gabe who said, “I had seen him on the news before, but I hadn't known he still led investigations personally…”  
“Only when the bribe is big enough,” Barbara said. She and Professor Valkyria exchanged a glance with more meaning than seemed called for.  
“What?” Eco asked.  
They maintained their mutual stare for a few more seconds before slowly Professor Valkyria turned to Eco.  
“The thing is, Joaquim, or Joca as some put it, is a well known lapdog to the greatest land owner in Brazil. If Joca is involved, he's pretty much guaranteed to be as well…” She trailed off, glancing at Barb again.  
For some reason, the girl’s expression had soured. He looked between Professor Valkyria and her for a few seconds before building up the courage to ask, “You know of him?”  
“His name is Eduardo Sati.” Barbara said without looking at Eco. “My father.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading another chapter of All Beyond the Sidelines!  
> With this chapter, I’m pretty sure all named characters have been introduced, and right about time too (my Word draft has only ten pages left, and peeking ahead I found three chapters still, so at least one of them will be pretty short).  
> As I mentioned last week, I no longer have the time to draw as much as I’d like, but I’ve been trying to spare at least half an hour each day to sketch Professor Rafael. It doesn’t always pay off, since there have been technical issues, but either way I’m thinking that until the end of the story, I’ll post my progress each week (I did get to the colors today, which was more than I was expecting, so maybe I’ll be able to start the Headmistress as well?)  
> http://erikdowser.deviantart.com/art/Professor-Rafael-WIP-662993353?ga_submit_new=10%3A1486862959


	13. The Runaway Ghost

Chapter XIII – The Runaway Ghost

At first, Eco wasn't really sure how Barb’s dad involvement might change the whole situation. He discussed it with Gabe in hushed whispers several times throughout the next day, but didn't really have the courage to question Barb directly, even though that was clearly the surest way to get a certain answer.  
While no one really confronted Eco and Barbara about their eavesdropping the previous day, it was unsettling to realize that the auror Joca was present in all of their lessons the next day. While the absence of his lackeys probably meant they were observing other classes as well, it seemed too much of a coincidence that the head auror would sit with them all the time.  
“I think it's because of me,” Gabe confessed in a low tone while he, Eco and Barbara were eating at the empty Fire Snake table. “They know I am getting special Dark Arts lessons from Professors Cesar and Rafael.”  
The hall was unusually silent that day, so even Gabes whisper sounded loud under the stern stares of Professor Cesar and Rafael from the professors’ table. Eco’s dad sat in silence eating, while professor Valkyria seemed to be trying to engage one of the younger aurors in conversation. He seemed responsive to her, laughing back and talking with wide hand gestures. The Headmistress also smiled and on the surface seemed to be having a pleasant conversation with Joca at her right-hand side, the place previously occupied by Professor Cesar.  
Barbara snorted, drawing Eco’s attention back from the table.  
“Not likely. Chances are, my father is using the whole situation as an excuse to have Joca watch my every move.”  
Eco recognized the opening he had been waiting for, “You don't get along with your father?”  
Barbara shot Eco a vicious glance of which he felt himself utterly undeserving.  
“That's a mild way of putting it.”  
Well, he guessed she wouldn’t let Joca’s presence keep them from investigating the murder. It was relieving, though it made him more curious to know more. Even a passing glance at Barb already told anyone Barb had some authority issues. Eco just hadn't realized she was from the richest family in the country.  
With that information, Barb’s hypothesis seemed just as probable as Gabe’s, and there was no reason why Joca couldn't be doing both things at once. Still, he thought they wouldn't appreciate that confirmation.  
“It seems more likely that they’d be following me, since they are looking after foreign affairs and all...” Eco said, hoping to put both at ease. By Gabe and Barbara’s lack of response, neither of them bought it.

In the forest path during Cesar's class, Eco got distracted thinking of the Dark Tower they should have been able to see from there. By the time twilight was already settling, Professor Cesar left very disgruntledly with Joca back to the castle, tasking the children to provide care for each of their House animals until the next day.  
One lone boy from Anteater House was left behind to deal with the unruly animal. Gabe hovered around the Golden Tamarin uncertain of what to do. Eco and Barbara worked together to put the Fire Snake back in its cage, and managed to get it done before Gabe had worked up the courage to touch his animal.  
“It just looks so fragile,” he whined as Barbara shot a hand to snare the monkey and shove it into its cage, deaf to Gabe’s cries of protest.  
“Hey,” Eco said with a sudden idea. “Do you remember the Dark Tower?”  
“No,” Barbara replied, more than a little annoyed. It wasn’t the first time Eco had brought that up. “You are the only one who saw it.”  
“I've been thinking. Maybe you can only see it at a specific time during the day and it's invisible otherwise.” It would have to be random times of the day, though, as Eco was fairly sure he had observed the forest enough during the class to notice if a tower had suddenly sprouted at the same time as the other class. “Still, maybe we could go into the forest to look for some signs...” He trailed off, uncertain of what signs a tower could possibly leave behind.  
Gabe shuffled his feet. “We aren't really allowed to go into the forest.”  
“Sure, let's go.” Barbara said, and Eco was fairly sure she did so only to break the rules rather than believing there was anything interesting to find.  
Still, Eco said nothing as they marched into the woods, carrying the cages for both the Fire Snake and the Golden Tamarin.  
”Of course,” Barb continued. “It's been over an year since I last came here, and Cesar was desperate to find something dangerous to put in to justify his prohibition.”  
Gabe shivered behind Barbara, but otherwise didn't react. He tripped on a raised root and lost his balance. He stomped a small sprout as he tried to remain standing, prompting the fire snake to uncoil and press itself against the cage.  
“Careful!” Eco urged. “Cesar said it’s a forest sprite that attacks people that harm the forest.” Eco could only hope the cage would be able to hold the creature, though, as they had no way to contain it if it escaped.  
“I’m sorry!” Gabe said quickly. “I didn’t mean to.” He turned to the snake cage. “I didn’t mean to.” Eco rolled his eyes and quickened his pace. He took out his cellphone and activated the lantern function to keep anyone from tripping again.  
“It should be around here…” Eco was about to skip over a root when something grabbed his arm with enough force to halt him in his tracks.  
He looked back to find Barbara had a vice grip on his arm.  
“You almost tripped—“ he started.  
Barbara squeezed harder, digging her nails on Eco's skin. Eco strained to see her face in the dimness, but her bulging eyes weren't focused on him at all. She stared ahead into the path.  
Slowly, without making any sound, Eco looked ahead.  
At first, he couldn't really tell what had gotten Barb's attention under the shadows of the canopy. But then he realized that what had seemed like a patch of light didn't have any reason to exist. Though it was silvery like moonlight, it seemed to be hanging in the air, rather than coming down from the sky.  
“Is that a—“ Gabe whispered, but as soon as he did, the silvery form shifted, and started approaching. As it did, Eco could discern the smokey contours of a human shape.  
“He—help…” a sound like a scratched CD came from the approaching figure, very soft.  
Then it shouted.  
“HELP ME!!!”  
Overcome by a primal fear, Eco grabbed for Barbara's hand and ran. The ghost pursued them, shouting.  
A Barbara came along for the first few steps, then halted. Eco tried to pull her away, but she shrugged him off.  
“Look at him!” she shouted, standing her ground.  
Eco glanced backwoods at the screaming ghost, whose foggy aura seemed to storm around it as it approached. It only made Eco want to run faster. However, now that he stopped to think about it, the ghost wouldn't actually be able to hurt him in any way. He stopped struggling to pull Barbara away and forced his body to turn towards the ghost. It seemed vaguely familiar.  
“You're Alberto Correia, aren't you?” Barbara asked. “The UNKNOWN auror?”  
The ghost momentarily stopped his screaming, his eyes twitching.  
“He – help me.” The ghost moved his lips, as if testing the motions. Then he shouted, “Help me!”  
“We want to!” Gabe said. “But how?”  
“he-HELP ME!!”  
Barbara stepped forward and slapped the ghosts face. Or at least she tried to, as her hand slid through in a puff of silvery smoke. She shivered.  
“What are you doing in the forest?” Eco tried. “I thought ghosts would stay somewhere related to them in life…”  
When the smoke reformed into the ghosts face, his eyes were focused on Eco.  
“The black tower,” the ghost mumbled. “All the ghosts trapped—the power.” The ghost’s voice changed inflection and spouted several syllables before Eco recognized he had changed to some other language. Then again, “Help me! Help me!!”  
Eco, Barb and Gabe exchanged glances. Eco assumed he should feel satisfaction in the fact that there was a black tower, but the situation kept him from rejoicing.  
“Can you take us there?” he asked. “Can you show us the dark tower?”  
The ghost’s expression twisted in a horrified grimace, his wide eyes building as he violently shook his head.  
“No! No!! I escaped! The dark tower—the power—help me! Help me!!”  
“There are more ghosts there?” Barbara asked, and Eco assumed that like him, she was thinking about that other incident she had related to him before, when hundreds of ghosts had swarmed out of the forest.  
“Tapered—the power—“ the ghost went completely immobile mid sentence. Eco and Barbara had the time to exchange a glance before the ghost blurted, “He's coming! He's coming! Help—“  
“Who-” Eco tried, but a voice cut his.  
“How unfortunate.” The three children turned to a new shuffling noise hidden in the trees, in the darkness. At first out seemed like a bush was making its way towards them, but as it approached, Eco recognized professor Cesar in his live mantle. “So much effort and expense to protect all students and still there are those who would break the rules and enter the forest in the middle of the night…”  
For a moment, not even Barbara had a response. Eco swallowed and tried, “We were only looking for—“  
Barb kicked him in the shin.  
“Looking for what in the forest, when we all know there's nothing here but dangerous, murderous creatures?” Cesar asked.  
“That and the ghosts,” Barbara said. “You always said the school was ghost-free…”  
“Ghosts?” Cesar smiled. “Of course there are no ghosts.”  
With a rising feeling of dread, Eco turned his head around.  
Where the ghost had been before, there was nothing.  
Eco turned back to Cesar and the professor’s smile had turned into a smirk.  
“It sounds like you children have been seeing things that do not exist. Are you making up stories?”  
“But he was right here!” Gabe cried “He was the man that was murdered in our first day here.”  
Cesar's smile cracked.  
“Gabriel, I expected more from you. To come here at night with these fancy tales… Really, what do you think would happen if you all vanished in the forest, where no one could find you?”  
And as he spoke, professor Cesar raised his wand. Eco still had his away, but his cellphone was on one hand. Without thinking, he pressed two buttons.  
Professor Cesar grimaced as Eco's camera flashed.  
“What was that?” he snarled.  
“Just a photo,” Eco said. “I sent it to my father, just so he'd know where we were.”  
“Give that here!” Cesar pointed his wand towards Eco.  
“Sure, but it's sent already.”  
Eco didn't move to give his cell phone away, but neither did Cesar come closer to take it.  
“It's past time you children went back to your beds. I don't want to find you here ever again. Next time, you children might find something… unsettling.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading another chapter of All Beyond the Sidelines!  
> As I was reading back to find the name of the dead auror from the beginning, I realized I had introduced MABRA with a completely different name during the first few chapters (ALBRAM). I knew Gabe had mentioned it before, but that’s the reason why it didn’t show up in my searches.  
> Last week I was still a bit freaked out by how close to the ending we were, but now I think things are progressing nicely. I might still decide to space out things a bit more if the pacing of the next sections feels weird, but that doesn’t seem so likely now (though I’ll still have to change around quite a bit of stuff next chapter…).  
> For this week, I managed to finish Professor Rafael’s sketch! I’ll start working on the Headmistress next, and I think I’ll post a WIP next week the same way as I did with Rafael. I also have that one sketch for the final chapter that I’ll post as a bonus either together with the Headmistress (if she’s finished by then) or separately after the story is finished.  
> By the way, have you noticed that all characters have (kind of) neutral expressions in the sketches? That’s because I was planning to use them as portraits in the fangame, so I’d still have to sketch several variations of expression for each character. I guess that’ll take a while…  
> Here’s the finished sketch for Professor Rafael: http://erikdowser.deviantart.com/art/Professor-Rafael-final-664355981?ga_submit_new=10%3A1487459021
> 
> EDIT: Er… I just scrolled to the end of the document I was using and… Surprise! It’s not the document that has all the chapters! This means I have no idea how many chapters we actually have until the end (my best guess is at least 3, seeing the way this document ends). I knew I shouldn’t have written anything about how many chapters we had left, but anyway… Sorry.


	14. A Window of Opportunity

Chapter XIV - A Window of Opportunity

“I knew the tower was real!” Eco gloated.

“Isn't it a bit weird that we didn't see it, though?” Gabe asked. “I mean, supposing that finding that ghost means we were going the right direction, why couldn't see anything above the trees?”

“There is a reason,” Barb said. “The only thing that surprised Cesar in that entire encounter was hearing about the dark tower. Here hadn't expected us to know about it.”

Eco kept thinking about when and how they could go into the forest again. After their escape, Professor Cesar surely would be watching them ever more closely. The new “Fire Snake Room” they had been provided felt like a thinly veiled attempt to do so, as it was located right next to the Professor’s Room, and none of the other houses had been assigned a common room yet. And not only that-

“Eco!” the boy grimaced. He had been expecting that confrontation ever since he received his first few replies in the morning. Eco's dad stormed into the Fire Snake House’s room, his face flushed. “Would you care to explain what is the meaning of that photo you sent me in the middle the night?  _ Certainly _ you weren't alone in the forest?”

“No, we were with him!” Gabe said, trying to be helpful. Eco's dad glared at him for a second before turning back to his son.

“what were you thinking? You know Cesar might be dangerous—”

“I know, dad, and I should have talked to you first. But remember when I told you about that tower?”

Eco recounted the entirety all the events from the previous night, including the ghost’s words and Professor Cesar's threats as best he could remember them. His father listened silently, his anger mixing with dismay.

“A spell to trap ghosts in an invisible tower? It's not impossible, I suppose, but it could be very incriminating, if the aurors can question the victim…”

“Doran!” professor Valkyria burst into the room, even more flustered than Eco's dad had been. “We found another body!”

When they got to the second floor corridor still carrying their animal cages, it seemed like all the school was already there, gathered around a point near the door to Professor Cesar’s room. Eco located the headmistress, Joca, and even Professor Cesar. His eyes lingered on Eco's group they passed.

“Valkyria, Doran, where have you been?” the headmistress whined, turning away from the center of the commotion.

“What happened?” Eco's dad asked.

“Oh, it was just awful!” the Headmistress moaned, covering her face with the back of a hand. “Yesterday, Joca and I were having a friendly dinner in the middle of the night when we heard this blood curdling scream! We came here to investigate, and one of Joca’s junior aurors had been attacked!”

So that's what was on the floor. Eco didn't feel any need to get closer, and apparently neither did Gabe, who took a few steps back. Only Barbara advanced more to investigate.

“In front of Cesar's office?” Valkyria asked, using her sweetest tone of voice. “Isn't that- weird?”

It was weird, but not in the way she expected.

“Yesterday night?” Eco muttered. He thought back on their meeting with Professor Cesar. “Could it have something to do with the reason why he had gone into the forest in the first place?”

Barbara's eyes went a bit wider. “Well, we know he wasn't hiding the body, since it was found here, but maybe...”

“... He was hiding the murder weapon,”  Gabe completed.

It was a thoroughly unsettling prospect, but after their meeting with the previous victim, the possibility seemed much too real to deny.

“We should talk to my dad,” Eco concluded. “Maybe even tell the aurors. It could help the investigation.”

“I wouldn't trust Joca with any important,”  Barbara said. 

While Eco understood her grudge against her father's henchmen, he still thought their best chance to get Professor Cesar would be sharing all the information they had. He glanced at Barbara, and by the set lines in her jaw, he doubted he would be able to change her mind. He _ could _ try talking to the aurors when she was not around... But it wouldn’t be right to hide it from her, if sharing information was the goal.

“Barb,” he called. As she didn't look at him, Eco continued, “I don't think we can do this on our own.”

“We've managed fine so far.”

“Two people are dead, and I think we got pretty close to joining them last night.”

She chewed on her lip, but didn't answer.

“Maybe we can't trust the aurors for everything, but they were sent to investigate the murders, right? Do you think they wouldn't even do that?”

Barbara did turn to him then, and her stoic masked cracked.

“I don't know. I don't know why they're really here. But, Eco, I don't trust them.”

He hadn't been expecting her to show vulnerability. It made him less certain as well. For several seconds, they just looked at one another like a pair of clueless children.

Unexpectedly, it was Gabe who said, “We should tell them. Even if it turns out to be a bad idea, I still feel like we’d regret it less than if something bad happens because we decided to do this ourselves.”

The three of them exchanged glances, and finally nodded to one another.

Looking back into the corridor, everyone had already left, following the group of aurors downstairs. They followed, animal cages still at hand.

When the three children found all the adults gathered in the dining room, they weren't sure whether it was a good or bad sign. In one hand, Eco's father as a support would be greatly appreciated. On the other, having all the grown ups in their closed circle made them seem even more inaccessible than usual. The other students seemed to be avoiding even glancing towards the larger table.

Eco hesitated at the doorstep, looking at the adults. So did Gabe it was Barb, then, that took Eco's hand and pulled him forward. He got a hold of Gabe’s shoulder before following.

When they stepped closer, the conversation stopped abruptly and all adults turned indignant faces to state at the three children, as if they had just yelled some curse word.

Eco’s dad was the first one to recover, “Eco?”

“Would you shoo your boy away?” the Headmistress grumbled. “This is hardly appropriate.”

His father shot Eco a sideways glance, but said nothing. Barb shoved Eco with her elbow, prompting him to say, “We saw something last night.”

Eco could feel Cesar's gaze boring through him, but pretended not to see.

“We had gone into the forest looking for the dark tower—”

The headmistress harrumphed. “There's no tower in the forest! And students are not allowed there, especially at night!”

“We were in the forest,” Eco pressed on, his face going red and his voice failing. Barbara squeezed his hand. “And we found a ghost—“

“Everyone knows there are no ghosts in Saciscola!” the headmistress interrupted again. “Frankly, Doran, can't you control your child?”

“He's telling the truth, miss,” Gabe stuttered. “We were there too. It was the ghost of that UNKNOWN investigator!”

“What nonsense! I'll have-”

“No,” Joca interrupted. He looked long and hard at Barb, then pulled out a notepad from his jacket. “Let the kids speak.”

Eco's legs felt wobbly, but the encouragement was enough for him to press on.

“He told us all ghosts had been trapped in the tower, which must be invisible. We were trying to talk to him when…” He glanced at professor Cesar, whose mouth was compressed into a fine line. “When professor Cesar showed up to stop us.”

“That can't be!” Joca said, annoyed, shoving his notepad back in his pocket.

“But it is, as I've been saying.” Professor Cesar’s mouth expended in a smug smile. “At what time would you say that was, British boy?”

Eco frowned. “Around ten thirty?”

“Which gives me the perfect alibi.” Cesar widened his smile as he turned Joca.

“That is only if the children could be trusted,” Joca said, though the grudging tone in his voice sounded to Eco as if he knew he was beaten.

“Don't be ridiculous, Joca. If course my students can be trusted!” the headmistress said, changing her stance completely. “One of them is even miss Sati.”

Barbara recoiled as if slapped, but Eco couldn't think of anything to say.

“That English boy even sent his father a recording of our encounter, didn't you?” Cesar countered, his smile making him facial features slight like a snake’s.

Eco swallowed as his father pulled out his phone.

“It's true. And the timestamp is 22:28:46”

“Muggle thingamajig!” Joca complained. “It can't be trusted.”

“Unfortunately, Joca, that's not for you decide,” the Headmistress said. “We’ll have to go through court procedures, and make our case once our turn arrives. And how long is the line for that? Five years, last I checked?”

The auror chewed on his cheeks watching their smiles.

“Fine,” he declared. “So Cesar is proven innocent, and so is Misstress Lima. All the rest of you are under preemptive arrest.”

“What?” Professor Valkyria protested. “Doran and I were together, we have—”

“You can't do this to us!” Rafael pleaded.

“An auror was killed,” Joca’s tone was more steady then than in any previous moment of the conversation. “You'll find that I can do a lot.”

“But this is—” Eco tried.

“Shut up! You children did enough already. You boys scream, and you, miss Sati…” He brought his index finger close to Barb’s face. “I've determined Saciscola is no longer safe. One of our men will escort you-”

Barbara pulled at Eco's hands, running to the exit. His surprise delayed him only a moment before he fixed his stride after her. He could only hope Gabe was following as well. Joca shouted behind them, but with no urgency in his tone. Apprehending the adults would probably be his priority, which as much for the better, as the Fire Snake hissed menacingly as Eco failed to keep its cage steady.

Barbara didn't seem to have a clear idea of where she was going, she took as many turns as she could, and eventually climbed the stairs. They were running across the first floor corridor when Eco noticed the door to professor Cesar's room had been left open.

“There!”

Barb paused for a second before following him inside. She waited long enough for Gabe to come in before closing and bolting the door. Meanwhile, Eco looked around the room. His breath caught in his throat.

“Can you guys see that?”

Through the window closest to the door, framed clearly against the bright sky, the dark tower stood exactly as Eco remembered it.

“That,” Gabe said. “is the dark tower?”

“I can see it,” Barbara said as well, her hand caressing the frame of the window. “But why?”

Eco shook his head, but kept his eyes fixed at the tower. It existed. They could get there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading another chapter of All Beyond the Sidelines!  
> Looking around the net, there seems to be a greater presence of the American school of Wizardry after the first Fantastic Beasts movie. Other schools (I think there was one confirmed somewhere in Africa, in Japan, and even Beauxbatons and Durmstrang) still seem to be all beyond the sidelines themselves, though. Does anyone know good fics that don’t focus on Hogwarts (nor in any of the established characters) for me to read?  
> In an unrelated conversation in the middle of last week, a college friend of mine made me realize how unlikely an easy friendship would be between someone of Indian descent (Barb) and an English guy. I had never stopped to consider it, since in the first draft Eco kept going back and forth between being American and English, but I wish I had them at least discuss some of their background in the story.  
> I had planned to post a WIP of the Headmistress for this week, but my 30 min/day plan has worked very well for her, and I actually have the finished sketch. That’s what I’ll be posting today, and start working on Joca for next week.  
> Speaking of her, I found another mistake I made due to inattention: her last name changed from her introduction to what Joca has been calling her since the last chapter. I’ll have to remember to fix that later...  
> This is the sketch of the Headmistress: http://erikdowser.deviantart.com/art/Carmen-the-Headmistress-665740793?ga_submit_new=10%3A1488062588


	15. Enemy Within

Chapter XV - Enemy Within

As the three of them walked up and down the classroom to examine the tower from every angle, they realized it was only visible from the very first window.  
“Maybe the class in enchanted?” Gabe suggested.  
But as Gabe pushed the window open, the tower remained visible on the other side. Eco edged his head out, and noted there was a ledge they could step out onto.  
“Do you think, Cesar enchanted it so that we can only reach the tower through here?”  
Gabe shrugged, but it was Barbara who tried stepping out onto the ledge.  
“It's still there…”  
Eco followed her. The ledge was wide enough that both of them could easily balance themselves side by side, but the lack of a handrail made Eco feel queasy all the same.  
"There's a path," Barbara said, pointing. "See?"  
It wasn't a path per say, but as Barb pointed it, Eco could follow a series of roof tiles, ledges and platforms that could be combined almost into a stairway leading down to the ground.  
"Do you think-" Eco started, but he wasn't sure what he wanted to ask. "Do you suppose Cesar went out this way before?"  
"He must have," Barb replied.  
"So he's the only one who knows of this passage?" Gabe asked. "Maybe we should send a message to your dad."  
Eco took out his phone, and had already texted by the time he noticed he had lost the connection. He shook his phone angrily. “My internet is failing. Can you guys try it?”  
Gabe grimaced. "My phone was stolen again." Indeed, it had already happened twice before, and Gabe had no idea how it happened, considering he never let the phone out of his pockets for anything but charging.  
They both looked at Barb, who had a weird expression as she looked away from them.  
"Hey, Barb," Eco called. "Do you have your phone on you?"  
"No,"she said in a low, defensive voice, her face growing redder.  
Eco and Gabe exchanged a mystified glance.  
"Isn't it you cellphone peeking out of your pocket?" Gabe asked.  
Gabe reached out to help her get it out, but Barbara jumped to the next platform on way down.  
"No one is touching my cellphone!" she thundered, turning at Gabe.  
"We don't-"  
"No one!"  
"Fine, but can't you send the message?" Eco asked.  
Barbara cast him a suspicious glance before slowly reaching for it. She held the phone very close to her body before hammering on the volume button, then sweeping furiously at the screen.  
"It..." she hesitated. "It has no connection either."  
Frowning, Eco checked back his own phone, where the symbol of the local operator was missing. He had texted his friends back home just that morning. Perhaps the aurors had done something once they found the new body?  
"Could it have something to do with the height?" Gabe asked.  
Eco couldn't see how it could. He had frequently sneaked looks at his cellphone even during Cesar's class, and never had any problem like that.  
"We should send the message anyway." Eco said. "It will go off once we have connection."  
The path to the tower is through Cesar’s room, first window on the right.  
Barb grunted and swiped a bit more before returning the cellphone to her pouch. Better that both of them send the message.  
They made their way down, still watching the tower over the trees. Eco kept expecting it to disappear while they weren't looking, with maybe something changing in the alignment of sun and moon that would render the tower invisible again. It didn't, and it held them captive with a sort of fascination that constantly pulled their eyes upward.  
"It makes no sense," Gabe said.  
"What doesn't?" Eco asked.  
"The tower. It looks almost.... Gothic."  
It did at that. Though there weren't any gargoyles that Eco could see, the tower had been arranged with a pointed apex with several intricate lines over the surface of the walls all the way from bottom to top. There were only four windows, narrow and arched, at the very top where the roof of the tower converged in a sharp angle.  
"Well, that sort of architecture was as popular with wizards as it was with Muggles," Eco argued.  
"Not here," Gabe insisted. "Brazil was discovered well after Gothic architecture had passed its prime, and even then resources were so scarce most buildings followed the simplest style possible."  
"Well..." Eco mused. "Maybe someone built it later? Wizards are known to be slow to follow Muggle fashion."  
Gabe tilted his head, "It could be... But remember what you're father taught us last class? Most magical population came here during the nineteenth century. Even if they were lagging half a century behind, it wouldn’t be like this.”  
Eco shrugged. He couldn't really see as much significance in the style as in the fact that the tower was invisible from everywhere but Professor Cesar's window.  
The school grounds were eerily quiet. Eco fully expected the aurors to break out of the main entrance at any moment, but no one did. There were no students lurking on the grounds either. No animals. No bugs. Not even wind.  
"It's like we're in a different reality..." Gabe said with a chill.  
It was, though Eco hadn't heard of any magic like that. He looked back at the opened classroom window, still empty in the second floor.  
"We should hurry all the same," Barb said. "They were following us to the corridor, so it's a matter of time before they decide to check Cesar's room more carefully.  
Eco nodded, and they walked into the forest. They could still see the tower looming ahead whenever there was an opening between the trees, so they could easily keep moving in the right direction.  
They kept expecting something to happen, but it felt as if barely fifteen minutes had passed before they they found the clearing where the tower stood. It was a narrow building about ten meters in diameter. There was a set of very narrow, very tall double doors. They were made of the same black stone a the rest of the tower, but had been engraved with a relief that covered the entire door: a dragon with its tail and legs near the floor and it's head looming over them from the top of the door, a full three meters above the children's heads.  
"Eco..." Barb called in a breathless voice. "I think I know who made this tower."  
Eco turned to her, but Barb’s wide eyes were still fixed on the carving.  
"Do you remember when Fluffy’s wand had first attacked someone else?” Eco cringed as Gabe took in a shaky breath. “Do you remember what Cesar said when he learned about what had happened?”  
“He said-” Eco tried to remember. “It was a question, I think.”  
“He was wondering if the other Cuca wand was in Saciscola.”  
“Yes!” Eco remembered the words as Cesar had said them, in a low whisper. “But I don’t know what that means…”  
“Oh, it’s a Brazilian thing!” Gabe said. “The Cuca is a creature from folklore. She’s known as a witch who had her head transformed into an alligator-”  
“That’s not it at all!” Barb cut in. “She’s may be a witch, yes, but the legends of her date back from medieval Portugal under the name of Coca, where she was feared as a dragon. There are a lot of wizards who believe her to be the most powerful dark witch that ever lived in the Iberian Peninsula. There’s a theory that she moved to Brazil early in the sixteenth century.”  
Eco frowned. He studied the carving of the tower before them, which indeed looked much as an European dragon. “So she was an animagus?”  
“I guess so. I never heard of a dragon that could turn into a witch.”  
“Well…” Gabe was scratching his head. “The clerk who sold me the wand told me all of he was only selling wands that he got from several wandmakers around the country, and also some second handed ones. Mine was supposedly one of those, so who knows how long ago it was made...”  
Barb glanced at Gabe, then stared back at the carving for a long time. “But who says she’s dead?”  
Gabe seemed thrown off by this question. He threw up his arms. “If she lived in the middle ages, it doesn’t matter if as a witch or a dragon, she couldn’t survive this long.”  
Barb shook her head in silence. She seemed to be forcing herself to speak as she said, “My father believes she’s still out there, and so do a group of shady wizards he leads. They often launch expeditions trying to locate her.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter! Cesar said ‘the other Cuca wand’, so he must have another like it.”  
She placed both her hands on one side of the door, her eyes still fixed on the dragon in front of her. Then instead of pushing, she turned her head to Eco.  
He swallowed before marching to her side and placing his hands on the other plate. Barb nodded to him and they begin pushing together.  
A gush of frosty air flowed from the tower as the doors creaked open. The screech of the hinges made Eco's hair stand up straight, but that wasn't the only sound. As soon as the door was open, the sound of a hundred moans and wails joined together against the children's ears.  
Eco peeked inside the darkness to find it speckled with pearly white forms, each with a glow of their own.  
The ghosts.  
Eco braced himself for a tide of screaming ghosts to cross through them as they fled the tower, but our didn't come. The ghosts kept on walking and circling in place, as if unaware the tower had opened.  
"I wonder why they aren't doing anything?" Gabe asked, his voice quivering.  
Even Barb hesitated before stepping inside, her eyes darting around to the nearest ghosts.  
"Could it be that they don't see us?" she suggested as Eco and Gabe followed her inside.  
The entire tower was a single long chamber like a deep well. The ghosts floated at different heights, providing illumination. There was no furniture or decorations - the walls were as smooth inside as outside, black and with those white lines as claw marks. There were small floating stone dabs which Eco noticed formed a disconnected spiral staircase all the way to the top. Thought eco remembered the windows were supposed to be up there, the top seemed to be the darkest part of the tower, fading into darkness until he could no longer see anything.  
"Maybe there's a room on top?" he mused.  
"Maybe..." Gabe said, avoiding the ghosts as he walked to the first stone slab. "Should we go look?"  
"I'm not going," Barbara said crossing her arms. "Look how those things move. I don't think I have enough balance to remain standing."  
Indeed, the stone slabs oscillated up and down in the air, and the first one dropped down as Gabe stepped on it. He waved his arms in the air to keep his balance  
"You're afraid of heights?" he asked, smirking.  
"No, " Barb said coolly. "But I am not, nor do I desire to be, an athletic person. I can keep my balance well enough on the ground, but I have no inclination to dance away on floating bricks and fall to my death."  
Eco didn't relish the idea either, but turning back now didn’t seem like an option to him. He was the one who had found the tower, and he wanted to know everything about it. He followed Gabe to the first stone slab.  
"I'll catch you when you fall," Barb said, her voice softer, though Eco would have preferred if over when.  
Gabe carefully placed the Golden Tamarin cage on the floor before taking the lead climbing the steps. Eco gave the Fire Snake directly to Barb, watching Gabe go. While at first it seemed like he'd lose his balance every time he changed slab, he soon developed into a rhythm that did make it seem like he was dancing.  
Eco had no such skill. Each time he hopped to a different step, it would dip about ten inches into the air, than float higher and oscillate like a log on a river. Every step was uncertain, and he had to wave his arms to keep his balance. Gabe soon had a very healthy lead over him.  
"There's something up there..." Gabe called, but Eco couldn't look up. He had to keep his eyes always fixed on the next slab, and the sight of the drop between steps made him queasy. He thought best not to open his mouth for an answer.  
The motion of each slab was constant, and with each step Eco felt less able to adapt. With horror, he realized was wobbling sideways, and that something weird was going on with his vision...  
A ghost passed through him. The rush of cold destroyed any last trace of focus Eco had as he and he fell face forward as he desperately tried hopping away from the ghost. While his feet were caught on one slab, a different one bludgeoned against his hip, and a third bruising his cheek.  
"Eco!" he heard Barb call from below. "What happened?"  
Opening his mouth still seemed like a bad idea. Instead he closed his eyes and tried pretend the steps weren't moving below him.  
"Eco?" Barb called. "Eco!" He wished she'd leave him alone. Then again, he should at least show them he was still alive.  
Just a few more seconds of rest and he’d say something.  
He heard Barb scream something incoherent. Had she tried to climb the stairs? The idea that she'd try to help him was flattering, but he hoped she hadn't hurt herself.  
Eco half opened his eyes to peer between the stone slabs. He could see the bottom of the stairwell, the open door and the dark silhouette of Barbara trying to hop her way up. It didn't seem like she had fallen, though her movements seemed weirdly elongated in the darkness.  
"It's so dark up here," Gabe called from above. "I can't- Oh!"  
His voice was surprised, but unafraid. He probably hadn't even noticed that Eco had fallen down.  
Eco kept watching Barb going her way up. He hoped her approach would give him some respite. She seemed to be shooing the ghosts away somehow, as none got too close to her. They seemed to be avoiding her path, going so far as to cross the ground floor away from her.  
One such ghost illuminated a shape that seemed fallen on the ground, which Eco hadn't noticed before-  
It was Barbara.  
But if she lay motionless on the floor, who was that other shape climbing the stairs?  
Eco tried to croak a shout - a warning, but the nausea overcame him, making the world seem like it was revolving.  
Gabe wouldn't have noticed this new figure. He had probably already gotten to the darkness the top of the tower. If the inside was anything like the outside, he really wouldn't see them even if he did look down.  
"Guys-" Gabe called from above. "It's- Wow!"  
The dark unknown shape was hoping faster, getting closer. Eco had to move. He had to do something! So what if he was sick?  
But there seemed to be more than that. His head felt weird where he had hit it, and the very idea of movement was enough to disorient him.  
And yet he had to do something!  
Eco could feel his wand still tight in his hand. It was hard to think what to do with it. It would be easier if he could talk...  
He tried mouthing lumos, but no sound came out, and nothing happened. He should try harder. Maybe-  
"Guys!" Gabe called. "It's the wand! It's really a wand just like mine! It's just floating here on top!"  
Eco couldn't process Gabe's words. He could just hope Gabe would somehow notice everything was wrong. That he'd somehow-  
Suddenly the whole tower began shaking and all ghosts joined in a single horrified wail.  
"I'm sorry!" Gabe shouted. "I didn't mean to- Eco?"  
Gabe could see them! The darkness must have dispelled when Gabe took the wand. Eco felt almost like he could shout in joy… But then the slabs beneath his started moving, falling.  
A curse word sounded from the other person, and Eco recognized the voice before he recognized the features now illuminated by the ghosts which had frozen in the air to wail: Professor Rafael.  
The slabs decelerated at different speeds. The one close to Eco's feet shot up, while the one near his head shot down. In an almost unconscious effort, Eco hugged the one closest to his torso, managing to keep himself from typing over.  
The effort almost made him lose consciousness. There wasn't really any pain - Eco felt like he could have handled pain better than the sense of emptiness and wrongness that overcame him. His vision went blank and he felt himself slipping from his slab.  
"Eco!!" He heard Gabe's voice from far, far away. It seemed to be getting farther as Eco realized he was falling.  
He may have blacked out then.  
The next he knew, he was laying on his back on the ground, still clutching his wand. All ghosts seemed to have joined in one ghastly mass that was rushing out of the door. They illuminated the tower, showing Eco that the stone slabs were constantly moving, seemingly rearranging themselves in random patterns.  
Barbara was laying beside him, almost at arm’s reach. From up close, she didn't seem harmed, probably stupefied. He watched her helplessly for a few seconds before realizing she was right next to his wand.  
"Rennervate," he croaked.  
Nothing happened. There was no reaction from Barb, nor a flash of light from Eco’s wand. He laid still for a second, and tried again, but he could feel no magic in his own movements. His breath was shaky with pain as Eco tried to move his wand closer to Barb. He didn’t know if it would make a difference, but he wasn’t sure what else to try.  
As his uncoordinated arm shook and poked Barb’s arm less gently than Eco would have preferred, she opened her eyes.  
Barb sat up with a jolt, her eyes darting everywhere. She focused on Rafael, climbing the stairs, then on the top, where the darkness had dispersed and Gabe could be seen by the light of the windows, and finally Eco, still fallen on the floor.  
"Eco? Eco, what's wrong?"  
He couldn't make out an answer, but looked at her through his half closed eyes.  
He had never thought of Barb as gentle, but as she took her own wand and carefully moved him to examine his wounds, her movements had a delicacy that didn't match her usual persona, and even her voice grew softer. Still, when she moved his head, Eco still felt the whole world swirling around him.  
"Your limbs are bruised, but it doesn't seem too bad. Your head is also bleeding, though."  
That didn't surprise him. He wanted to tell her to go help Gabe, or maybe to go back and call the others, bit his words wouldn't quite string together, coming instead as incoherent babble. Barb held her breath, stopping for a moment as she tried to make sense of him, then continued with less certain movements than before.  
She pulled out her phone, maybe with a thought similar to his, but sneered and tucked it back into her pocket. She picked up her wand instead, and pointed it at Eco.  
"Eco, do you know any curses that can hurt you like this?" Eco tried, but it was hard to think. "I have tried a few reverse spells from what Rafael showed over the years, but I can’t remember anything-"  
Barb closed her eyes for what seemed like almost a minute, and she was shaking by the time she opened them again.  
“I can’t- Yfeputs!” she cried, waving her wand in a circular motion. It let out a shower of sparks, but nothing more. “No! If…”  
But Eco too had an idea. He had to mouth it twice before he could produce the sound, “Valkyria…”  
Barb looked at him without expression for several seconds before her eyes went wide. “Yes! I was on the infirmary while she was treating you the other time! I saw some of her spells, but I don’t know if I can…”  
She closed her eyes again, waving her wand in the air contemplatively as he muttered incantations. Her movement grew firmer, and she looked straight into Eco's eyes. Something like a fresh breeze flowed from Barb’s wand, and for one instant Eco felt better- then it was gone.  
“It’s no use!” Barb said. “I’ve got the right spell, but I don’t know how to make it stronger. If I had practiced…” Her eyes fell onto something on the floor, then Eco felt her yanking his wand from his hand. She repeated the incantation in a frenzied motion.  
This time, Eco felt like he was taking in his first breath of spring. His eyes went wide and he felt his body elating, his lungs expanding, maybe even bones mending. A white flash of light startled him, but not enough that he realized that most the pain seemed to be gone. He exchanged a mystified glance with barb before trying to stand.  
He blinked. And for once the world seemed to have stopped swirling.  
"Did it work?"  
Eco felt much more pain in his head than before, but his confusion seemed to have subsided. He could speak.  
"I think-"  
His left arm and left hand hurt a lot while he moved - he had fallen on of them in his descent, but with Barb's support he managed to stand, most of his weight falling onto his right side.  
He looked up to find that Gabe and Rafael each stood on a different stone slab gliding in the air. The professor was saying something, but it was too far for Eco to hear.  
"We must get up there…” Eco said, trying to move closer to a slab that seemed to be descending towards the floor.  
"I can't." Barb said, keeping him from advancing further. Eco turned to her, but before he could say anything, she insisted, "I'm serious, my balance is terrible. Maybe we can get them down here..."  
Looking up at the moving stones, it was hard to see how either Rafael or Gabe could go down rather than by falling. The movement patterns of the stones was random, but even those that got close to the floor were barely within arm's reach for Barb, who was taller than Eco.  
Barb scowled at the dancing slabs, then she waved her wand at them,  
"Asoivel muidragniw!" she cried, pointing at the closest slab.  
It plummeted to the floor with a hard thump that raised dust from the floor.  
"Maybe that's not such a good idea..." she said.  
Eco hoped onto the newly downed slab and sat on it.  
"Maybe you can levitate me, then?" Eco asked. "I mean-"  
The slab rose from the floor on its own. Eco and Barb exchanged a terrified glance before he shot up into the air.  
He had to hold onto the border of the stone to keep himself balanced - he doubted he'd survive another fall. He zoomed past Gabe and Rafael, who watched him dumbfounded before Gabe shouted, "Eco!"  
He thought he was going to hit the ceiling before the slab decelerated and lurched back down. It stabilized near Gabe and Rafael.  
"-you are my hope for the future, Gabriel."  
Whatever Eco had been expecting Rafael to be saying, it wasn't that.  
"We can make this into a better country, but i need you to give me that wand."  
"Don't do it, Gabe!" Eco shouted, noticing a moment too late how obvious he sounded.  
Gabe didn't call him out on it. He looked at Eco from his rotating slab of rock with his eyes wide open and his mouth hanging wide.  
"Of course he'd say that, Gabriel. He's one of the foreigners. The English, who now hold all our gold in their banks, all our animals in their museums and all our native spells crossed out from history!"  
Eco had known Rafael would be part of MABRA, being close to Professor Cesar, but could he really expect to convert Gabe in that situation?  
"So you're doing this on Cesar's orders?" Eco spoke up.  
"Cesar?" Rafael sneered. "Cesar is too soft. He's never willing to go into a direct confrontation, as if there was any way other than revolution to save this country!"  
Eco frowned up at Rafael. He was supposed to be Cesar's henchman. Everyone knew it. And yet...  
"Are you the one who killed the UNKNOWN auror?"  
"Of course!" Rafael said, and his face went red from anger. "Foreign aurors investigating Brazilian affairs? How can people not be outraged by this? We are supposed to be a sovereign nation, aren't we? And yet our minister acquiesces to every foreign demand..."  
"That's diplomacy!"  
"That's lunacy!" Rafael spat. He turned back to Gabe. "Gabriel, you are the most powerful wizard I've ever seen. Even the people that pass as great wizards in history - none of them were half as skilled as you are! You are Brazil's best hope for the future."  
"Don't listen to him, Gabe!”  
"Listen to me, Gabriel! That boy is a colonist agent trying to undermine your value. He gives you orders as if you were his slave.  
"That's Not what I'm doing! Gabe!" Gabe knew it. He must know it. Why was eco repeating it out loud, then?"  
"Gabriel, your be the hero of our nation. You could change the world. You could end oppression. You could do so much more- if you only joined us.”  
There was a long moment of silence during which both Eco and Rafael watched Gabe, who just stared vacantly into the darkness. Then he said, very softly,  
"I've always dreamed of being a hero. I've always dreamed of making this nation better." Eco opened his mouth as Rafael smiled. "However! If you think being a hero means killing people, professor, if you think being a hero means betraying your friends, or if you think, professor, that being a hero is placing for country against the entire world, then, professor, then you're no hero of mine! And I'll show you what being a true hero -"  
"Expelliarmus!"  
There was a red flash from Rafael's wand. Midway through the air, though, it was consumed by a black cloud that formed and faded in the air right afterwards.  
They all just stared at one another for one moment longer, then Eco pointed his own wand at Rafael and tried to copy his movement,  
"Expelliarmus!"  
There was a red puff from the point of Eco's wand, but nothing more. That prompted Rafael to cackle.  
"That is a second year spell. Your magic is not developed enough to-"  
"Expelliarmus!" Barb cried from below, and a flash of red light missed Rafael only because his stone slab decided to make a sudden turn upwards.  
Rafael stared at her exasperated, "Everyone knows you're a retard. How can you-"  
Barb shrugged, "Technically I could be a third year. I've always failed due to discipline, not talent. Expelliarmus!"  
Rafael hoped to a different stone before pointing his wand to Barb, "Stupefy!"  
Eco extended his arm to Rafael as far as it would go, "Protego!"  
The pearly done that formed was wide enough that Rafael's spell glanced on its surface and changed directions to hit a wall.  
The professor growled and pointed his wand straight at Eco, "Crucio!"  
Almost reflexively, Eco repeated, "Protego!"  
Eco felt as something, an air wave, pressed against his white shield. And held. The pressure increased, but it held. One second, five seconds. Then a noise like nails on a board sounded from the shield before it shattered in a million pieces that faded into dust before reaching the floor. Something crashed on the wall to Eco's left, where he would have been if the slab hadn't moved while he waited.  
Rafael was now horrified, "Nothing can block an unforgivable curse! It's not-- how?"  
"Expelliarmus!" Barb called from below, but this time no flash came. She roared and tried again, but Rafael didn't seem to be listening."  
"Professor, leave them alone!" Gabe pleaded. “We can talk about it once we're back to the castle."  
The professor did hear then. He bared his teeth at Gabe, "This will be my last time asking, Gabriel. Give me the wand," he pointed his own at Eco. "Or we’ll see just how many unforgivable curse your friend’s shield can take!"  
"Asoive muidragniw!" Barb bellowed, and Rafael's stone slab lurched down.  
As it descended, Rafael jumped towards Gabe, taking him down while struggling in midair to take the wand.  
A cloud of darkness flung him against the wall with a violent crash before Rafael slid down towards his fall. Meanwhile Gabe pointed at his sandals at the same time as Barb and cried,  
"Wingardium leviosa!"  
The spell took hold inches before Gabe feel to the ground, and he hovered for a single second before lightly touching the floor, his sandals eskew as they tried floating away from his feet.  
"It's over, Rafael." Barb said. “The aurors will be here at any second and know that you were unable to beat three children. You cannot even touch the wand."  
Rafael hissed very softly. Eco looked down to find the professor crumpled still where he had fallen. His voice shook a little as he hissed-or rather laughed.  
"Oh, Barb the ‘Tard" he said. "Did I ever tell you what my specialty was? I did, but I doubt you were listening.”  
"Expelliarmus!" Barb cried, but there was only a red puff of smoke.  
"You are right, I can't touch the wand. I don't need to." Rafael pointed his wand straight at Gabe. "Imperio."  
Both Eco and Barb slowly turned to Gabe with a rising sense of despair. Eco's breath faltered.  
"Gabe?" He called. "Gabe, you must resist this! Gabe!”  
But Gabe didn't seem to be listening. He held his wand alongside his body, while his other hand was rummaging through his pockets. Then he pulled out his own wand, the other Cuca Wand.  
Barb pointed her wand on him, "Don't move!"  
Gabe swatted one hand towards her before she could do anything else and a shower of dark sparks threw her against the wall much as it had done to Rafael. Gabe pointed the other wand towards Eco and muttered something.  
Eco felt a force pulling him downwards. He tried holding onto his slab, but the force broke his grip and lacerated his hands and arms before bringing him down. For one second, Eco felt as if he was floating, then he crashed against the floor.  
Eco was only faintly aware of his surroundings. He could see the darkness around Gabe. Rather, he could feel it, a cold dread that hung in the air around them. He could hear Barbara, he thought, grasping and calling out to him. And maybe he could even hear Rafael, gloating.  
"Gabe-" Eco tried to call, but he wasn't sure whether his voice sounded out or if it was only in his head. "Gabe..."  
There were flashes. Voices. And darkness. So much darkness, cold and bitter. There was someone... Was it hits mother? Eco couldn't get to her. His father was there two, but he had his hands held together with Professor Valkyria.  
Eco tried to move, to get someone's attention, but no one could see him.  
Barb passed by as well, but she was too busy leading a revolution to notice the likes of him. Gabe noticed him, but he was being corralled away by the government and other powers of darkness. Professor Cesar stepped on eco, wether out of spite or inattention.  
There were others. Everyone Eco had ever met passed by him, but Eco could not touch them. They went in and out of his life without ever taking note, without him ever making a difference.  
Eco wanted to cry out - to cry - but to what end? It couldn't make a difference. He couldn't make a difference. And the darkness was all over him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading the next-to-last chapter of All Beyond the Sidelines!  
> So… I had a few goals when I set out to revise the first draft of this story. One of them was to give Gabe some more screentime in the middle chapters, which I think went out nicely; another was to eliminate all the mistakes by typing the story on my cellphone; and the third was spacing out the information I required for this chapter not to feel like an info dump. Too bad I forgot about this third one while revising… But still, I hope it wasn’t too bad. As Professor of History of Magic, Eco’s dad was the one that was supposed to have given us the background on the Cuca before, so it wouldn’t come up at the last minute. I’m only glad she doesn’t actually show up, nor is decisive for solving anything in the plot, since that would have been a terrible Deus ex Machina.  
> Speaking of which, Barbara’s reverse spell worked like that in the first draft, so I’m glad I remembered to introduce the concept earlier (though perhaps showing her use them before would have been optimal). I also included the house animals on the revision, because I felt like their plot thread didn’t really go anywhere in the first draft, but while revising I couldn’t really fit them into the battle (I had an idea of them forcing Rafael to crush a leaf or something to turn the Fire Snake on him, but I feel like it would detract from the chapter rather than improve it.  
> That said, next week’s post will be the last, and probably my favorite. I hope you enjoy that as much as I did when writing it!  
> For this week, I have a sketch of the scene in which Barb tries to heal Eco, so I’ll hold onto Joca’s WIP until I finish coloring it.  
> http://erikdowser.deviantart.com/art/Not-Fine-WIP-667161408


	16. To Oblivion

Final Chapter - To Oblivion

Eco woke up. At once he noticed he wasn't in the tower anymore, feeling a comfortable mattress under his body. Though his eyes were open, the darkness still seemed to hang around him, keeping him from seeing anything. He tried to move his hands, twitching his fingers as the movement brought him paint to the muscles and joints. He tried to move his feet...  
He couldn't.  
Eco tried turning around, but his lower body didn't follow his commands. He gasped.  
"Oh, so you're awake?" Eco turned his head to where the voice came from.  
“Professor Valkyria?”  
Something shifted just beside his bed with a shuddering noise, followed by Barb's voice, "Awake?"  
"I-" Eco expected to feel his throat raw, but whatever spell professor Valkyria had used to heal him had made sure he stayed hydrated. "I can't feel my legs!"  
"I expected as much. Your spine is broken." Valkyria said nonchalantly. "It will be all better in a week or so."  
The wave of relief that Eco felt was greater than his dread of staying a week in bed.  
"Eco!" Barb cried, and he felt warm hands grip his arm tightly. "You're awake!" she didn’t seem to be hearing their conversation, and instead repeated, “You’re awake!”  
Eco smiled, trying to look at her, but still the darkness was too dense.  
"And my eyes?" he asked.  
"What about them?" Valkyria replied.  
"I can't see."  
"You what?" Now Valkyria sounded concerned. He heard hurried steps approaching, and then Eco felt her propping his neck up.  
"Is your vision blurred or..."  
"It's dark. It's all dark." He let Valkyria move his head around. "Barb, are you okay?"  
"Yes, I am!" Eco couldn't be sure, but she sounded almost as if crying. "I was the first to wake up after-" Her voice sobered up. "Gabriel went ballistic. All the ghosts came back screaming and gathered around him as if attracted to his wand."  
"It was quite fascinating," Valkyria said. Eco felt the air fluttering just in front of his eyes, perhaps from a wand being waved. "The aurors lost track of you, and we were all looking at different places when the tower appeared in the forest, and the ghosts flooded out. I was one of the first to arrive, which was fortunate. The aurors had been trying to fight poor Gabriel, which of course would do no good." She paused. "Can you see now?"  
Eco shook his head, and heard Valkyria walk away and open a cupboard.  
"I managed to incapacitate Rafael and break his hold over Gabriel. That set the ghosts out of control, and by the time everyone was at the tower, and everyone was safe, one of the wands has gone missing."  
"Where's Gabe now?"  
"Right here," Valkyria said. "The aurors thought best to keep him also until one of their experts could verify he really isn't under the influence of the Imperius Curse, as if I wasn't the top expert myself. They're afraid, as no one could take the other wand away from him. He’s clutching it even now, asleep."  
Eco was reminded of his dream, in which Gabe was led away by the government. Surely they wouldn't blame him?  
But that reminded Eco of the rest of his dream, and he was very aware of Barb's hands still on his arm.  
"And my dad?"  
Valkyria approached again, her steps stopping just beside his bed, and something moving right in front of his face. "Drink this."  
He moaned as he moved his arms to get the cup, but he managed to drink it.  
"Seeing anything now?" Eco shook his head again, resting his aching arms with the cup back on the bed. "Not even a flash?"  
Valeria's nonchalant tone didn't match her words. Eco turned his head to where he believed Barb had been sitting. He heard steps walking away - too light to be Valkyria - and a door opening.  
"Can you fix it?" Eco asked.  
He heard an intake of breath that lasted a second to o long.  
"There's nothing physically wrong. That would be easy. Whatever Rafael did to you using Gabriel was powerful black magic, and I'm not sure what to do - yet. Maybe with some research..."  
She talked off as they heard shooting from off in the distance. It sounded like Barb - pleading - with someone. She sounded desperate, which was even weirder. There were many other voices, though Eco couldn't quite hear the words. He heard Barb say the word "father" before the door was closed and the sound further muffled.  
"What was that about?" Eco asked.  
"She was talking to Joca, the auror. It seems like he owes her father a few favors, and she wanted to get one of them."  
"What would she need a favor from them for?"  
Valkyria didn't answer.  
There was a long silence, and the longer it stretched, the more Eco was aware of the darkness over him. How long would it stay?  
"Where's my dad?"  
Silence.  
"What..."  
The door opened again, and Eco hear his dad's voice, "Eco!"  
"Dad!" Eco felt a wave of emotion overwhelming his senses. He extended his aching arms to the door and called again, "Dad!"  
He hear his father's footsteps hurrying towards him. There was a metallic sound, as if he was dragging iron soles as he walked. He took Eco in a tight hug, one of the true hugs that made someone feel complete, protected tightly in an embrace. Eco realized he was crying. He had been afraid, though only now he noticed it. He squeezed his dad as tightly as his wounds allowed him, and didn't move away.  
Eco didn't know how long they stayed like that before his dad slowly disengaged. They still didn't break contact, and as Eco tried to get a hold his father's hands, he felt a cold metal wrapped as an armband over his skin. Almost like...  
"Dad... Are you wearing handcuffs?"  
Eco felt his dad flinch, but the voice who answered was someone else's, from the door.  
"Your father is a murderer." It was Joca, the auror.  
Thoughts flashed across Eco's move. The aurors had it all wrong! He spoke up, "No! It was Professor Rafael! He was the one who-"  
"Don't be an idiot, I know what professor Rafael did!" Joca said, and Eco felt his father's hand tensing up. "We would have questioned him to find exactly how and why."  
Would have questioned? What-  
"I'm sorry Eco!" His dad said, and his loaded voice sounded as if he too was crying. "When I saw what Rafael had done to you I lost my mind-"  
No.  
No! Eco couldn't believe it! He sat motionless as his father squeezed his hand, sobbing.  
"It was quite a messy affair too,” Joca continued. “Your father doesn't have enough magic power use Avada Kedavra, so he-"  
"That's enough!" Barb shouted from somewhere need the door, and Joca took on a sneering tone.  
"Oh, no, miss Sati, it's not nearly enough! I have been trying to catch those criminals for years, and this was the closest I had ever been to a tangible clue-"  
"Well, at least my dad stopped them!" Eco said, his throat hoarse.  
Joca cackled softly, "Did he now? You know, after whatever Valkyria did to him, Rafael woke up in panic. He seemed quite alarmed by everything around him, and as we tried questioning him, he seemed unable to understand. He was talking a lot, and shouting, we guess, in Arabic. Was he trying to plead insanity, or is there something else about this case? Now we won't ever know."  
There was a long moment of silence broken only by Eco's dad's sniffling. Eco still couldn't accept his dad was a murderer. He probably wouldn't be able accept it for a long while.  
"When I saw him speaking like that- when I saw the aurors were listening," his dad said. Eco didn’t want to hear. Even though the emotion was real in his dad’s voice, or perhaps because of it, it sounded as if he was making excuses. "I thought Rafael would be able to get away with what he had done. I couldn't take it-"  
Eco didn't want to know. He couldn’t accept.  
"Eco put up a great fight," Barb said, very softly. "You should have seen him. His shield charm managed to stop an unforgivable curse."  
Through his sobbing, Eco's dad chuckled. He sounded pleased. That was better. Eco should pursue that.  
"You were the one who chose that wand for me. It's wonderful for protective magic. Is it a unicorn hair?"  
Eco's dad wheezed an amused sound.  
"No, not unicorn hair. It was a strand of my hair. I hoped it would protect you..."  
Eco felt the barrage of emotion raising again to his chest. He pulled at his father's arms until he had him in an embrace again. “It did! It protected me!”  
"I would say that's time enough for your favor, miss Sati,” Joca said. "Now I need to take the murderer away."  
"Goodbye, Eco," his dad said, still holding him with one arm, and the other ruffling his hair. "I want you to do your best. Better than I did."

After the aurors had taken his father away, all courses died in the infirmity. That wasn't too say or was quiet, as professor Valkyria still busied about, and Barb made occasional impatient boxes from her chair beside the bed.  
The lack of conversation allowed eco to think, though he still couldn't quite prices everything.  
What would happen now that his father was arrested? He could go back to London as he had been dreaming all those past months, he supposed. But with his mother absent and no form of income, Eco wasn’t sure he would be able to survive there, even if he wanted to go at all. Both Valkyria and Barbara had offered some vague assurances of help, but Eco wasn’t sure how much they could actually do, and if he would accept it.  
His best hope actually seemed to be Gabe, who was also without parent support, and yet seemed to be holding up on his own.  
Eco also thought about Rafael and his last boom of insanity. Why would he speak a foreign language, of all things? From his speech earlier, it sounded as if he despised anything foreign. He thought of Gabe, and of what Barb had told them off professor Rafael's origins.  
"Professor Valkyria," he called. "How could you tell Gabe was no longer under the Imperius Curse?"  
She sounded surprised by the question, given the way there were glasses rattling.  
"I used a spell designed to break it," she said. “It's been the subject of many magical research over the past century, with all the dark wizards, and it tends to be effective. I've also been developing a diagnostic spell, which isn't yet peer reviewed or regulations approved, but has been promising in testing. It also returned positive for Gabriel."  
Eco thought of the Imperius Curse. Of the dark wand hidden in the black tower in a separate world. What if-  
The door slid open.  
"Good evening, Valkyria."  
"Cesar," she greeted.  
Eco heard the professor entering the room. There was some shuffling as he moved in his nature cape.  
"Can I help you with anything?" Valkyria asked brusquely.  
"I just wanted to check on Gabriel. Is he any better?"  
"His condition remains unchanged."  
"And the wand?"  
"Still in his hand. You can try and take it away, if you wish."  
Cesar chuckled, "Don't be absurd. I know no one else can touch the wand."  
"Someone can," Valkyria said matter of factly. "The other wand didn't vanish by itself."  
Cesar didn't reply, and Eco felt a rising sense of anger.  
"You had the wand hidden in your classroom, and you want us to believe you can't use it?"  
Eco heard the shuffling leafs. He wished he could see Cesar's reaction.  
"Whatever do you mean? The wand was hidden in a tower, far from my classroom. I'm as clueless as everyone else."  
"The only way of reaching the tower was through your office window!"  
"Was it? Valkyria, do you remember going through my office window before finding the tower? Really, those foreigners come up with such stories..."  
"Laugh while you can, Cesar," Barb said. "But everyone knows you were Rafael's closest friend."  
Assuming Cesar could use the wand, and that he had been Gabe and Rafael's tutor in dark magic... Could his specialty be the Imperius Curse? Could he have maintained it for over two years, using the wand hidden in that tower? Could everything Rafael had said in the tower be actually from Cesar?  
And if he could, was it really wise to go against such a person without any solid evidence?  
"Rafael did say Cesar knew nothing about it," Eco said, trying to make it sound as a point begrudgingly conceded. "Yet you must have suspected something."  
"I was as clueless as everyone else," Cesar said, and Eco could hear the smirk in his voice. "From what the aurors tell me, it seems Rafael was actually a foreign spy in disguise. Really now, one of the foreigners a terrorist, the other a murderer! What can I expect from you next?"  
Eco felt the heat rising to his face, but he knew he mustn't answer. Not while they were all so vulnerable. Cesar could easily curse him, or Barb, or Gabe.  
"Don't you dare talk to him like that!" Barb exploded. "You sleazy-"  
Eco heard a tap, and Barb stopped mid sentence. Had he cursed her? Had Valkyria tapped a sign? Or had Barb taken hold of her temper. Not seeing was almost unbearable.  
"At least Gabriel is uninjured." Cesar's voice took on a paternal tone. "He will be the greatest wizards this country - the world has ever seen. I will do everything in my power make that happen."  
"Then you should start by getting the aurors to hurry with his examination," Valkyria said. "Go on, talk to the headmistress."  
Eco heard him walk away, and when the door closed again, no one spoke.  
Eco thought of telling them his theory:of the wand, of Rafael, even if it meant his father had made a grave mistake-  
But they already knew. They knew, and yet they were as powerless as him. Even Valkyria, who was the top researcher of the country. Even Barb who was the heiress to the richest family.  
How could they change that? How could they do anything?  
"You know," Valkyria said. "I've been at this for years.” It was as if she could read his expression, or maybe she too could use Legilimency. “You'll have a much better start than I had." Was she talking to him? To Barb? Both?  
With his sight lost, with his father a murderer, Eco had a hard time believing her encouragement. But what else could he do? His best. He'd always do his best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reaching the end of All Beyond the Sidelines! I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I did, and that this last chapter had the intended feels.  
> As I mentioned in the first chapter, I actually envisioned this project as a fan game, and this fanfiction represents only one of the possible paths in one of the possible schools. Of course, I have no illusions that I’ll ever be able to build great stories with multiple meaningful decisions on my own, so if you have any interest in writing about other schools of magic, I’d love to use that in the game, if you give me permission. You can use Eco as the main character with the same excuse of moving to a different school, or a completely different cast. I’d even include Hogwarts, as long as no characters from the original books were featured in the story (some name dropping is fine).  
> As a side note, I’ve been looking for stories like this for a while, but had no success so far. If you’ve read anything that sounds anything like what I just described (OC centric, preferably in a different school than Hogwarts), could you please point me in the right direction?  
> I’m also posting the last sketch that I have (with a scene from this chapter) and also with Joca’s likeness. He turned out a bit… weird, but I think it makes him distinct from the other characters.  
> By the way, I’ll probably create some sort of blog for the fan game project later, but if you would like to contribute with character art/illustrations/background/music/anything, it would also be greatly appreciated. Again, I was hoping to make this a group effort.  
> One last time, thank you for reading. Even if you have no interest in the circumstances surrounding the project or its future, I hope you had fun!  
> Illustration for the last chapter (WIP): http://erikdowser.deviantart.com/art/The-End-WIP-668364206  
> Joca’s Sketch: http://erikdowser.deviantart.com/art/Joca-668365361

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, and thank you for reading the first chapter of All Beyond the Sidelines!
> 
> I started writing this maybe a year ago, after finally getting around to watching the Harry Potter Musicals and scouring the net for fanfiction. I was surprised at the lack of material from other schools of magic around the world, even though some of them had already been confirmed by Rowling. My initial idea then was creating a visual novel fangame that allowed the player to choose what school she'd attend. As I started to write what I intended to be the first of many stories, I realized this would probably take a while, so I decided to release this as fanfiction so I could get some feedback and do more editing before continuing with my gaming ambitions.
> 
> All Beyond the Sidelines was written entirely on my cellphone while on the bus. I realize it's in sore need of editing (while editing this chapter, I realized Eco sounds much older by the end of the story). I'll try to do this at a reasonable pace to publish one chapter per week.
> 
> I just watched Fantastical Beasts earlier today, and it gave me the boost I needed to kick off the revisions, even though I had finished the story last week. I've tried to keep true to cannon while writing, but I'm sure I got a lot of things wrong, since I haven't seen Cursed Child yet, and haven't followed Pottermore very closely. If you happen to see something in my story that seems out of place in the universe, please let me know so I can do something about it in a later revision.
> 
> As a last note, while drafting the story I went back and forth between making Eco and his dad British or American. I decided to go with British since I know more about the wizarding world there, but as I haven't ever been to the UK, the characters might come off as American. If there are suggestions about words or expressions that could sound more British than in the current dialogue, I'd welcome them as well.
> 
> Also, I had some sketches of most characters done, so I'll try uploading them on Deviantart weekly as well. Eco can be found in the following link art/Eco-648567860
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
